Zendaya’s Interview: Zendaya Opens Up About Her New Movie “Challengers,” And Her Responsibilities as Producer, In a Recent Interview with Variety
In Zendaya’s Interview with Variety from nearly a year ago, Zendaya opened up about her recently released film “Challengers,” and some of the challenges and moments of pride she experienced while starring in and producing the tennis drama.
The film, which came out just over a week ago, was initially scheduled to be released months ago, but was delayed following the Hollywood labor strikes. In “Challengers,” Zendaya stars as Tashi Duncan, the tennis prodigy who, after suffering a career-ending knee injury, makes her foray into coaching and finds herself at the center of a high-stakes and damaging love triangle involving her husband and his best friend-turned-rival. While revolving around the world of tennis and fully exploring the ins and outs of the game and its subculture, it is not necessarily a sports film. More so, it is a drama, with moments of comedy, about love and lust and complicated (and toxic) emotional relationships, which happens to take place in the realm of tennis. Tennis is just the vehicle for delving into what lies at the story’s heart, and is ultimately “a metaphor,” as Zendaya puts it, “for power. For codependency. They’re using tennis as their device to get these things out of their system. It’s the only way they know how to communicate.”
In speaking with Variety, Zendaya emphasized the significance of her role as a producer for the film, in addition to her lead actor status. She expressed her gratitude for being able to tackle this project with the title and authority of producer, but also touched on some of the obstacles encountered during production. “I really love the problem-solving aspect of it,” said Zendaya. “There was a week we were shooting ‘Challengers’ and it rained, then we couldn’t shoot because it wasn’t safe for the courts and it wouldn’t match all the shots that we had earlier,” she recalled. “Trying to figure out how to actually make something happen is a huge part of filmmaking.” This was the 27-year-old star’s first time taking on the responsibility of a producer, and it will likely sprout more work from her within the production side of the industry. When asked if she could see herself directing in the future, she suggested that it could certainly be the next step in her career, affirming that she “would love to be a director one day.”
Zendaya has had a dazzling start to 2024, with her appearance in the box-office smash hit “Dune: Part Two,” and the already hugely successful “Challengers,” now in theaters. And she shows no signs of slowing down, so stay tuned for more exciting projects to come from Zendaya, whether it be in the twinkling lights of a starring role or behind-the-scenes in the director’s chair, or both – “one day, when the time is right, when the story is right,” as she puts it.
