WATCH: Zendaya Reflects on What Factor Race Plays in “Challengers” Off-Court Romance

essencemagazine

The actress deep dives into the role of Tashi Duncan, her biggest character departure to date.

Transcript

00:00Yes, absolutely not a tennis player before, no experience.

00:06So quite the challenge, but part of the way through,

00:11because tennis, I don't know if you've ever played,

00:13but unless you've been playing

00:14since you were four years old,

00:16you're not gonna be Venus or Serena anytime soon, okay?

00:20So I came to that conclusion very early,

00:23and I realized, okay, so how am I going to approach this?

00:27And truthfully, you know,

00:28Luka doesn't typically do storyboards,

00:31but for all the tennis sequences

00:33between the boys and myself,

00:34everything was storyboarded and planned and choreographed,

00:39because you can't, no matter how great you are,

00:41you can't put the ball in the same place every time.

00:45Like, tennis is not like, it is improvised.

00:50It's not like a choreographed sport, you know?

00:53So we had to approach it from a sense of choreography,

00:57so I tried to approach it from a dance perspective,

01:02and I was learning a dance,

01:04and I just tried to sync up with my double

01:07as much as possible, match her footwork and her form,

01:12and just visually try to mirror her as much as possible.

01:18You think that tennis is about expressing yourself,

01:23doing your thing.

01:24You don't know what tennis is.

01:27What is it?

01:30Tashi Duncan.

01:31She's in another league.

01:33You were incredible today.

01:34Come on!

01:36To have a fashion line, a foundation.

01:39She's gonna turn her whole family into millionaires.

01:46What are you gonna do now?

01:47Unfortunately, my only skill in life

01:49is hitting a ball with a racket.

01:51I want you to be my coach.

01:53How often does this happen?

01:55Going after the same girl?

01:57Come here.

01:58Which one of us?

01:59Oh!

02:04She's a lady.

02:07This film is a pretty big departure for you

02:08in more than one way.

02:10Just to kick things off, I'd like to know,

02:12what is it about this particular story

02:13that made you want to produce it

02:15and make sure it saw the big screen?

02:17I think that, you know, I think the script was brilliant.

02:21I think the script was brilliant,

02:23and I really, you know,

02:26sometimes I have difficulty getting through scripts.

02:28Like, if it doesn't capture my interest,

02:31like, my brain starts wandering,

02:32and this was one of those ones

02:34that just, like, I kept turning the page.

02:36And it felt like a challenge.

02:40Like, the character was incredibly complicated

02:44and messy and difficult.

02:47And I think that alone,

02:49not even including, like,

02:51having to learn how to be a tennis player,

02:53you know what I mean?

02:54Presented this big challenge,

02:56but I think sometimes being a little bit nervous is good.

03:01And I think entrusting in Luca,

03:04who was the perfect person for this piece,

03:08and understanding that he felt the same way

03:10about the characters and the story that I did,

03:13and wanted to create the same thing that I wanted to create.

03:17And being able to just be creatively a part of something

03:21and have a real seat at the table in that way

03:24is very special.

03:26Tashi is a departure from a lot of the characters

03:28we've seen you play before.

03:29And for one, we see her from childhood to adulthood,

03:32and it's our first time seeing you in your 30s.

03:35It's our first time seeing you as a mom.

03:36So I'm kind of curious how you were able

03:38to kind of strike those nuances

03:40while still showing her as a dynamic powerhouse personality

03:45from being 17, 18, to being 30, 31.

03:50Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

03:51I think for me, it's kind of a luxury

03:55to be able to like carry a character through time,

03:58because it means you don't have to create

04:00a backstory for them.

04:01You already know where they were and what happened to them

04:03and how they got the way they are.

04:07And so for me, it was just about tracking emotionally

04:10who she is and where she's at.

04:15And what that injury does to her.

04:17And what, as she's older, what, there's like a,

04:23when they're younger, there's a certain level of levity

04:26and joy, it's like a sparkle, you know what I mean?

04:29That over time fades and becomes jaded

04:33and becomes desperate to just hold on to whatever she can

04:40and keep her life together.

04:43And this composure or this idea of a false composure

04:47maybe that she's portraying to other people,

04:50because I think she's responsible being a coach,

04:52being, you know, this, having all these duties,

04:56being a coach, a mother, you know, whatever,

04:59a businesswoman, she just,

05:02she feels like she doesn't have the time

05:04to wallow in her own self-pity or her own pain,

05:08which I'm sure is an experience many women,

05:10specifically black women, face, right?

05:14And so she just pivots and pushes forward.

05:18And we see through that pushing,

05:21the cracks are starting to form.

05:23Now, this is also probably the most sexualized character

05:27we've seen you play.

05:28And as we saw back during Mother Marie,

05:30I think a lot of audiences sometimes still have problems

05:33seeing you as a grown woman and seeing you in that way.

05:37Listen, sometimes I do too.

05:38I'm like 27, 27.

05:41Can't even believe I picked up on you, right?

05:43It sure did, because I was like,

05:46I feel like I was 18 five minutes ago

05:48and I don't know what's happening and I'm an adult

05:50and I don't, I don't, I don't know.

05:52I don't know, but here we are.

05:55Exactly, here we are.

05:56And you really are owning that.

05:58And it's a very sexy role, but it's not explicit.

06:01How are you able to, I guess, as a character,

06:05draw that balance and kind of exude that sexiness

06:07without having to show actual sexy in the film?

06:12Yeah, well, I think, you know,

06:13that's the power of filmmaking.

06:15I think Luca does a beautiful job

06:17at making things feel sexy,

06:19feel very visceral and personal and intimate

06:23with the way he chooses to shoot things

06:26and place the camera.

06:28I think sometimes it's literally the POV,

06:30but I think also, you know,

06:32tennis acts as a metaphor for sex and power

06:35and all these other things as well.

06:38And for me,

06:42it just felt like, you know, the right way to do it.

06:46And I also appreciate too,

06:48that like, I think everyone is equally sexualized.

06:53You know what I mean?

06:54Like everybody has their own kind of gaze, I suppose,

06:59on each of the characters.

07:00So it feels very,

07:02it doesn't feel like disproportionate in any way.

07:05You did kind of touch on this earlier,

07:06but I feel like Tashi's role in this movie

07:08as a black woman, it's there,

07:11but it's kind of not harped on.

07:12I guess it's kind of, I don't want to say ignored,

07:14but I feel like it's not super a part

07:17of the love triangle narrative,

07:20even though there is like a quick line

07:22that kind of mentions, you know,

07:24the racial aspect of it.

07:26Was it a conscious decision on you and Luca's part

07:28to kind of exclude a lot of that from the story

07:31to focus on the love triangle

07:33or what was the decision-making process

07:35to kind of not really focus on Tashi's blackness

07:39as it relates to the love story of two white men?

07:42Well, I think it's something that, like I said,

07:44is done in a nuanced way,

07:48in the sense that like, for me, for her,

07:51tennis, her relationship to it

07:54and why she is so passionate about it

07:56is because of her access to it,

07:59because she doesn't come from

08:01the same privileged background as these two boys,

08:04because she doesn't have anything else to fall back on,

08:06because her family, you know, didn't want her to go,

08:10couldn't afford the kind of school

08:12that they would want to go to

08:14and wouldn't want her going there anyway, you know?

08:16So like there's, there are certain aspects

08:20that are specific to her experience

08:23that I think feel very honest

08:27and also play into her relationship with them,

08:30with the boys, but also her relationship

08:32with what she loves, which is tennis,

08:34and why it is so devastating to her

08:37when this injury happens,

08:39because there was no backup plan,

08:41there wasn't anything else

08:43that she felt she could fall back on, she had to succeed,

08:45or her want or need to have an education

08:49and go to college and have something else,

08:52you know what I mean?

08:53Like there's a different sensibility

08:55and a different dire-ness,

08:59I don't know if that's even a word,

09:01to her perseverance and what she needs

09:05and what she wants out of life.

09:08So while it's maybe not the first thing,

09:13you know, maybe we focus more on the love triangle,

09:18maybe it's not the first conversation,

09:19but it is throughout,

09:21I think in a very beautiful, nuanced way,

09:24because it's truth, you know?

09:27And it's her reality.

09:29And it's a part of her psychology

09:32and why she moves through life the way she does.

Category

Transcript

Recommended