Zendaya talks about the sex scenes in ‘Challengers’

Zendaya reveals the challenges of filming sex scenes in ‘Challengers’: ‘Kissing three people at the same time is complicated’.

When the film Challengers was announced in 2023, fans went wild at the idea of seeing Zendaya in a threesome. Shortly after, the steamy sex scenes of the love triangles broke the internet, and according to Zendaya, required an entire team.

“We had to do it in one take,” she explained. “So it was like, ‘You have to say this line, the camera has to go here, and if we mess up, we have to start over’.”

What’s the big deal, you might ask? The film – spoiler alert – features all three cast members, Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor, sharing a three-way kiss. “It’s very intentional and thought out with everyone’s help. It’s a whole community of people making this shot happen. We [the actors] are just a small part in the end.”

Despite only being in theaters for one weekend, fans are thrilled, not only with the sex scenes but with the movie as a whole. One fan wrote: “Honestly, Tashi in Challengers (2024) is my favorite Zendaya role/performance so far.” Another shared: “It’s fun to play in worlds that aren’t necessarily yours. This world supposedly is perfect; it was fun to pretend in it.”

As Zendaya shared, in the film, tennis “is a metaphor for many things: desires, passion, pain, anger, frustration,” and ultimately, it exceeded expectations.