We'll never look at churros the same way again!
Challengers is currently taking over the world.
The latest directorial effort from acclaimed Call Me by Your Name and Bones & All director Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, the delicious, tension-filled drama tells the story of tennis players Patrick Zweig (God's Own Country's Josh O'Connor) and Art Donaldson (West Side Story's Mike Faist) and how their lives and relationship are tossed into their air after meeting prodigy Tashi Duncan (Euphoria's Zendaya).
The film follows Patrick and Art in the middle of a heated professional "challenger" tennis match.
After a knee injury during her college years derailed her own dreams of pro tennis, Tashi positions herself as Art's very intense, demanding coach (and wife), and though a string of recent losses has knocked down his ego as a player a bit, Tashi and Art decide to enter him into a challenger tournament just outside of New York City to help lift his confidence. But a wrench is thrown directly at that plan when Patrick shows up.
What follows is a years-long origin story of how Art and Patrick went from besties and roommates who loved each other to romantic and professional rivals vying for the love and attention of Tashi, and the entire affair is filled with enough homoeroticism and sweat to last a lifetime!
Alongside Zendaya, Out got the chance to speak to O'Connor and Faist about their characters fluidness when it comes to their sexuality, and what it was like crafting their dynamic together.
Though Patrick seems like a typical overconfident, unwashed dirtbag (he is), he has a fluidity about him that is a pleasure to see in a sports-themed film, and that was evidenced during one scene in the film where he can be seen on a dating apps swiping right on both women and men.
"I really liked that moment," O'Connor told Out. "I think that embodies Patrick, really. I think he's unashamed, unabashed about everything and it's particularly, in that moment, it's like there's no shame in him being like, 'I just need a bed to sleep on and I don't care who it is.' This is a fun fact: The picture of the guy that he swipes right for was someone from the crew of the film. We put that in there. "
He continued:
"That was one of the things that I loved about Patrick, that he is so front footed and he loves both these characters and he embraces the challenges that he puts to each of them and that they put to him. It's nice when you see a flawed character like Patrick, like Art, like Tashi. It's nice to see someone just accept that they are. That can be quite charming and funny and it's, I guess, a redeeming quality."
Later in the video, Faist was asked how he crafter Art and Patrick's dynamic alongside O'Connor, and he said:
"Well, we had six weeks prior to actually shooting to train and the tennis and to workout altogether and actually to rehearse where we just were in a rehearsal room with Justin Kuritzkes and Luca and we did character development, screen work, worked on developing what we were going to do. Then Josh and I, outside of all of that, we would just walk around Boston and we would just run lines. So we really just kind of developed this kind of rapport and we got really to the point where we just knew each other's lines, so in those scenes we could just be right on top of each other."
"It's really a privilege, with both Z and Josh, when you have these just instinctual actors that know their characters so well and have these ideas," he continued, praising his co-stars. "They're able to throw something up in the air to you and you're able to take that and throw it back."
Watch Out's full interview with the stars of Challengers in the video above. Challengers is now playing in theaters.
