The film 'Challengers' is a mix of tennis and a love triangle. “Challengers” The movie, set to be released in April, has sparked curiosity about the intimate threesome scene involving Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. This scene was described by O’Connor as a very natural part of the filming process.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, “The Durrells in Corfu” star discussed how the three actors collaborated to bring director Luca Guadagnino’s vision to life for the film 'Call Me by Your Name'.
“Luca had a very clear idea of what happens on the bed. The idea of me and Mike, with Zendaya in the middle—this idea that it’s kissing, kissing, and then it turns into this three-way kiss—and then suddenly Mike and I are kissing. That was very clear.”
O’Connor continued, “We all kind of figured out, how are we going to do this? How does this work There is an element of improvisation with it. It was fairly organic.”
The “Crown” actor added, “We did little things, like, when they’re sitting on the floor and she goes onto the bed, I was up in a flash and not holding back. That came from us knowing our characters well, and knowing the dynamics between the three of us.”
Guadagnino is known for creating sensual films that avoid feeling exploitative, from 2015’s “A Bigger Splash” to 2017’s Timothee Chalamet-Armie Hammer romance “Call Me by Your Name,” but the trailers for “Challengers” put the eroticism front and center in this romance.
To ensure authenticity, O’Connor had to do something new: go to the gym.
Before filming, he confessed to never having gone to a gym, but it was a requirement for the role. O’Connor stated, “We did three or four weeks of: two hours in the morning, tennis; two hours gym; rehearsal every day. I was forced into going to the gym. There was no option.”
“And apart from the fact that I felt amazing, I suddenly had all this regret from when I was a kid — if only I’d discovered the gym earlier, maybe I could have been an athlete,” he added.
Unfortunately, he continued, he didn’t keep the habit after filming concluded and was surprised to see himself when he watched “Challengers.”
“I’ve now learned that you can’t just go to the gym for three months and then stop and it’ll be there forever,” he said. “So that was a good, late lesson for me to learn.”
