‘Challengers’ (‘Desafiantes’ in Spanish) is already out and is giving a lot to talk about. The film follows Tashi (played by Zendaya), a promising young tennis player who sees her career cut short by an injury and becomes coached by Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), whom she met in her youth. When he gets stuck on a losing streak, she sets out to redeem him. However, their plans take an unexpected turn when Art must face Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
The film directed by Luca Guadagnino uses tennis to tell the story of the love triangle, making many wonder if the actors really learned the white sport.
Did the cast of Challengers actually play tennis in the movie?
The cast of ‘Challengers’ prepared intensely for the tennis scenes. For six weeks, the actors trained at a country club outside of Boston.
However, the team realized that it would be impossible to achieve shots that exactly matched Justin Kuritzkes’ script, especially those that had to be repeated. His solution was to use special effects: in some shots, the “Callengers” cast held only the racket handle and simulated the movement, the other part of their instrument and the ball being added via computer.
This is how Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist prepared to play tennis on ‘Challengers’
As already mentioned, the film’s cast underwent intense training to bring tennis players Tashi, Patrick and Art to life.
The training was led by Brad Gilbert and his wife, Kim Gilbert. The former is a former tennis champion and current coach of Coco Gauff.
“His days began early. We’d hit the road at 6 a.m. to start practice, and they’d be on the tennis court until noon, and then they’d have a full afternoon of performance,” Brad Gilbert told “Variety.”
In training, they focused more on practicing the plays and moves required by the scenario rather than learning tennis as a sport in general.
One fact worth noting is that Mike Faist was the only Challengers cast member who had previously played tennis, back in high school. Even so, his challenge to prepare for the film was greater since, according to the aforementioned magazine, he had just shot the version of Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” in which he played a very thin Riff.
Because of this, “I had to eat between 8,000 and 10,000 calories a day” to “gain about 30 pounds,” commented Brad Gilbert.
Working on Art’s character also required a different kind of dedication for both the coach and the actor since, in the film, he is the only one with a unique style of play, so the production had to focus on achieving that.
For her part, Zendaya prepared for the role of Tashi by watching videos of legendary tennis players on court and attending college tennis matches.
In an interview with Vogue he commented that he also focused on mimicking his body doubles, especially after the production decided they would add the ball and racket in post-production:
“I started treating it more like a dance, like, ‘Okay, it’s more about copying gestures, copying feet, whatever.’ Then everything became a shadow. The ball is coming to the post, so why am I so stressed about hitting that ball or being hit by that ball?”
The challenge for Josh O’Connor was his character Patrick’s serve as, from the start, he was seen as having “a serious problem”, according to Brad Gilbert, so he had to work to nail that gesture from the start . .
Where to watch ‘Challengers’?
The film starring and produced by Zendaya is now available in theaters. There are currently no details on if or when it will arrive on streaming services.
Have you seen ‘Challengers’ yet? Tell us in the comments what you think about the movie.
Source: univision
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
