Zendaya’s upcoming s*xually-charged drama Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino has been making headlines over the past few months for varied reasons. From the raunchy scenes between the actress and her two lovers Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist to the story centered around the world of professional tennis, Challengers is currently the talk of the town.

Meanwhile, as the film got pushed back to April 2024, due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Josh O’Connor sat for an interview with Vanity Fair, to discuss his experience. Reflecting upon the production phase, the actor shockingly noted one aspect that he struggled the most with. While people might think it’s the erotic scenes, O’Connor revealed facing unimaginably difficulty portraying his extrovert character.

Josh O’Connor Struggled with His Role in Challengers

Coming from the director of Call Me By Your Name, Zendaya’s forthcoming erotic drama Challengers, set in the world of professional tennis, stars The Crown’s Josh O’Connor and West Side Story’s Mike Faist, in titular roles. While the movie focuses on Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, the tennis prodigy-turned-coach, after suffering a bad injury at a young age, it features O’Connor and Faist as her two lovers.

Following the steamy trailer packed with s*xually-charged scenes, Challengers made notorious headlines for the past few months, after its release date got postponed to April 2024, due to the Hollywood strikes. Meanwhile, Josh O’Connor addressed his role as Tashi’s ex-lover Patrick, and opened up about the struggles he faced during the production, in an interview with Vanity Fair.

Considering Josh O’Connor’s interview about his filming struggle, people most certainly started expecting his difficulties surrounding the raunchy scenes. Since the movie is filled with wild sequences, fans felt that O’Connor might have struggled with that very aspect. But to their surprise, the actor apparently struggled playing the role of an extrovert, while handling the s*x scenes flawlessly.

“I actually found it really hard. The truth is, Luca had to take me aside after about two weeks and was like, “Josh, you can’t hide. You have to be all out.” I’m not brilliant at that. I like to be in the corner, hiding away a little bit.”

Addressing how he struggled mightily with his role as an extrovert who takes up a lot of physical space in the movie, Josh O’Connor spoke candidly about his unimaginable difficulties.

Zendaya Addressed the Raunchy Scenes in Her Movie

Since most actors struggle with steamy scenes on-camera, fans had expected Josh O’Connor to have similar issues, when he recalled his filming difficulties. But it seems, despite Challengers being filled with raunchy sequences, the actors involved were rather comfortable shooting them. Perhaps the scenes weren’t as steamy as they were portrayed in the film.

Addressing the “intense” erotic scenes in the new tennis drama Challengers, Zendaya came forward to explain how the movie actually deals with the subject of s*x. Playing the leading lady in the movie, the actress opened up on how the sensuality in Challengers does not come from out-and-out s*x scenes, during an interview with Empire.

“What Luca’s really good at is finding sensuality and desire. There’s so much in just glances. The tension builds. Not having the release is a good thing sometimes.” Zendaya noted.

“The tennis is the s*x. Those moments are so sexy. The film is dealing with the tension before and after. The s*x they’re all desperate for is on the court.” O’Connor added.

Similarly, during another interview with Elle, Zendaya discussed how the intense scenes in the movie are like “chemistry”. Explaining further, she noted how the sequences are quite natural and part of the process, as it will remind people of things that “you can’t always say, but you feel” instead of making them uncomfortable or funny.