The Illuminerdi’s Chalice Williams recently attended the press conference for CHALLENGERS where they discussed a variety of topics within the film and how it all came together.
The cast and team behind Challengers held a press conference this past weekend just ahead of the film’s release on April 26. Kelley Carter moderated the panel featuring stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, producer Amy Pascal, writer Justin Kuritzkes, and director Luca Guadagnino who were all in attendance to chat about their latest project. The film has wrapped its press junkets and premieres with a final stop in Los Angeles last week.
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Here are some highlights from Saturday’s Challengers press conference. The actors spoke about how Mike and Josh created the toxic bromance between their characters. Mike Faist stated the following:
“Look, we had, as Z was saying earlier, we had a very luxuriant time six weeks prior to actually shooting. When we got to Boston, we had six weeks of training and rehearsal with Luca and Justin and Amy. And just getting to know each other. And then on top of that, Josh and I would just spend any other time that we had just running lines around Boston. Just walking around. And we would just run lines. We’d go to the park. We would just walk around the city and we would just run the lines.”
– Mike Faist
Zendaya also spoke on her tennis training process for the role:
“Essentially, we got about almost six weeks before we actually started production to just work on tennis. And we were under the support and guidance of Brad, who is incredible and an iconic person in his own right. And truthfully, I had no idea about tennis. I knew nothing. All I really knew of tennis was Venus and Serena… and so, again, it was one of those things that it was terrifying as a challenge to, like, take on.”
“Because you know you’re supposed to be a great tennis player. And I’ve never been a great tennis player. And I think I was incredibly nervous showing up. And I think we were all incredibly nervous showing up on that first day. And so we did tennis training beside each other. We worked out beside each other.”
– Zendaya
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Director Luca Guadagnino also spoke on the kinetic tennis sequence at the end of the film:
“Like as Zendaya just said, we rehearsed a lot. We rehearsed the dramatic part of the movie very many, many, many days. And then we were on the court every day, few hours, watching the point. Understanding how those sports action had to be reflective of the dynamic between the characters. So basically, I started from the unit. Every little gesture.”
“And we adopt until we understood that the final sequence, the final moment had to be basically a silent sequence, or non-dialogue sequence, that was going to be very clear to everyone in the audience to understand the emotional ramp-up that had to be built there. So it took a long time if conception, the drawing, shooting. I think that sequence, the last 10 minutes, took us eight days to shoot, more or less, which is incredible.”
– Luca Guadagnino
Check out Challengers when it hits theaters on April 26th.
About CHALLENGERS
Release Date: April 26th, 2024
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
Executive Producers: Bernard Bellew, Lorenzo Mieli, and Kevin Ulrich
Producers: Luca Guadagnino, Rachel O’Conner, Amy Pascal, and Zendaya
Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Production: Melissa Lombardo
Distribution: US: Amazon MGM Studios, Internationally: Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast: Zendaya, Mike Fast, Josh O’Connor, and Darnell Appling
Synopsis: Boy is a mayhem machine who’s been training to assassinate the bloodthirsty Hilda Van Der Koy and avenge his family’s murder. Guided by his sister’s mischievous spirit, Boy uncovers one stunning revelation after another as he barrels toward Hilda.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to Challengers? Do you think this is a great role for Zendaya? Let us know your thoughts about the upcoming film on The Illuminerdi’s social media.
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