A lot has been made of Zendaya‘s kissing on-screen. Challengers director Luca Guadagnino is here to defend the actress and the steamy scenes.
Speaking to Variety, Guadagnino asked for people to “not make war” out of these scenes. Kissing is a natural part of life that he depicts in his films.
“It's beautiful to kiss people!” he said. “That's what I want to say. People, kiss! Do not make war.”
For the stars, the scenes weren't as big of a deal as viewers made them out to be. A scene where Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist's characters kiss was filmed in June 2022. Zendaya recalls not even being focused on the kissing.
“The only reason I really remember is because Beyoncé came out with ‘Break My Soul' that day,” she revealed. “I was having a great day, like, ‘Y'all, Beyoncé's single just dropped.' That's what I was focused on, to be honest.”
O'Connor added that they lost the star “for like a week.” The second “cut” was called, she was off with headphones in.
Challengers follows a former tennis prodigy, Tashi (Zendaya), whose career is cut short after a devastating injury. She begins coaching her husband (Mike Faist) who has to face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former lover, Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor).
The film was initially slated for a September 2023 release date. However, the SAG-AFTRA strike caused the film to pull out of its Venice Film Festival premiere and theatrical release. Amazon MGM Studios will release the film on April 26.
Luca Guadagnino's movies
Luca Guadagnino made his directorial debut in 1999 with The Protagonists. He'd subsequently direct Melissa P. and I Am Love. There would then be a six-year gap between I Am Love and his next film, A Bigger Splash.
In 2017, Guadagnino directed Call Me by Your Name, his biggest film to date. The film was an adaptation of André Aciman's novel of the same name. It effectively helped put Timothée Chalamet on the map and also starred Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlberg.
The film made a splash upon its premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics would acquire the distribution rights for the film and release it on November 24, 2017. At the box office, Call Me by Your Name grossed over $40 million.
From there, he directed a Suspiria remake and produced Beckett for Netflix. He would once again collaborate with Chalamet for his next film, Bones and All, in 2022. The film also starred Taylor Russell.
Challengers is Guadagnino's first directorial feature since Bones and All. He will also direct Queer, an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1985 novel of the same name. Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, and Jason Schwartzman will star in the film.
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