Challengers is one of the best movies released this year. The tennis drama stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor as three professional tennis players with a complex relationship on and off the court. Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, the film is vying for the industry’s highest accolades as Hollywood’s awards season kicks into high gear. Guadagnino, Kuritzkes, O’Connor, and producer Amy Pascal were in attendance at Deadline Contenders Film 2024 to promote the film and discuss its production.
[Editor’s note: quotes have been edited slightly for clarity.]
Challengers’ score and script
The intense score cooked up by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross rightfully lit audiences on fire when the film was released in April. The moderator kicked off the panel by asking Guadagnino about that score, asking if it was always the sound he wanted for the film.
Guadagnino responded: “Yeah, while we were doing it, I felt that the world was unapologetic in its entertainment, in the way in which Justin conceived it. And I think that being European, I have no sense of inferiority toward the concept of entertainment. I actually think it’s the best thing you can do, to create some sort of emotions through your work. So when we were doing it, I felt the movie had this energy, this kinetic energy that was driven by these characters and their fucked up existences and their need to be together and their need to be mean to one another, and then to make love to one another, which happens to be something that you do in life. And I was more and more convinced that this was like [a] bombastic energy movie. So I called Trent and Atticus, and I said, ‘Hey guys, I think for this one, we should go house music, like if we're in a rave party’, and they went, ‘Okay’. And then two months later, Amy and I, we were at their fantastic studio here in Hollywood, and they said, ‘Play’. And we were like, ‘What the fuck.’”
Amy Pascal chimed in here, saying “But it was all Luca's idea. They were like, ‘Really? Rave music?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah’. And then they were so… it was like he does with everyone. He pushes everyone to do things that they can't possibly think they can do. And then they do.”
Following on with Pascal, the moderator asked her how the film came about, like if it started with getting her hands on the script. She responded, “Yeah. We read Justin's script, and I'll say, what I loved about the script so much is that it's about three people who desperately don't want something to happen, and they spend all these years fearing that this will happen, and then it does, and they're okay. And I think that's a really wonderful, unusual thing to make the movie about, because it's such a human experience that we spend our whole lives being scared of something, and then the actual event comes about, and you learn you can survive it. And for all the various things that Challengers is about, that was one of the things that really touched me when I first read it.”
No one on the Challengers team plays tennis
Moving onto Kuritzkes, the moderator asked him how the idea for the film came about, and if he’s part of the tennis world himself.
He responded, “No, not really. I played as a kid, and I was not very good.” Pascal elaborated on that statement, clarifying that “Nobody played tennis who made this movie. Not a single person.” Guadagnino continued, “I didn't know anything about it, and I know nothing about it now.”
Kuritzkes did explain where the concept came from, though: “I'll tell you the moment I knew that Luca was the perfect director for this. He had just read the script, and we were talking on the phone, and Luca said, ‘I know next to nothing about tennis, but I know a great deal about desire.’ And that was very much true of me as well, until one day, I was watching the U.S. Open, and I just happened to turn it on because it was happening. And there was this match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka in the final. And there was this very controversial call where Serena Williams was accused of receiving coaching from the sidelines. Not being a massive tennis fan, I had never heard this rule, but immediately it struck me as this intensely cinematic situation, that you're all alone on the court and there's this one other person in this massive stadium who cares as much about what happens to you as you do, but that's the person you can't talk to. And so I started to think, ‘Well, what if you really needed to talk about something?’ And what if it was something beyond tennis? What if it was about the two of you, and what if it somehow included the person on the other side of the net? How could you have that conversation, and how could you communicate the tension of that using the tools of film, and that was really the spark.”
Josh O’Connor on his Challengers co-stars
After talking about tennis boot camp and more about the beauty of the script, the moderator asked Josh O’Connor about the seduction scene between the three characters and his chemistry with fellow stars Mike Faist and Zendaya.
O’Connor said, “Yeah, we really hit it off, the three of us. But it was also that, you know, we are actors at the end of the day. We really like the gratifying feeling of hearing someone laugh. And I remember in that scene, actually, there was a look at one point. I think Tashi says something about not having gone to a private school, wasn't privately educated. And Luca just came over and said, “You need to be baffled by that. That's an extraordinary thing that she, in Patrick Zweig’s head, she's chosen not to go to private school, rather than that she couldn't necessarily afford to, or that that wasn't an option for her.’ And I did it, and I remember Luca laughing behind the monitor. That's so gratifying. I think, constantly - and Justin’s script has this - there are huge things at play, huge emotions and huge questions of these characters. And I think in order for that to kind of run through, there is always humor, and particularly when they're younger, and we're coming back later on in life, I think that humor runs throughout the film.”
Challengers is absolutely a standout movie and it was amazing to hear more from the cast and creatives behind the film. It’s my favorite movie of the year in fact, and I can’t wait to see how it performs during the biggest awards ceremonies in Hollywood. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for more work from Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes!
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