Challengers Press Conference - Zendaya, Luca Guadagnino, Josh OConnor, Mike Faist, Amy Pascal & More

The moment we've all been waiting for. Hello, good morning everyone, and welcome to today's event. Welcome to the global press conference for the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios film Challengers, which has Early Access shows in select theaters this Monday, April 22nd, and in theaters everywhere next Friday, April 26th. I'm Kelly Carter, I'm a senior entertainment reporter for ESPN's Andscape, and I'll be moderating today's presser. So I want to welcome our talent today: of course, Luca Guadagnino, Josh O'Connor, Zendaya, Mike Faist, Amy Pascal, and Justin Kuritzkes. Did I say it correctly? Kind of? Sort of? Give me another chance. Justin Kuritzkes? No, Kuritzkes. When I tell you I landed that so well before this moment... My sincerest apologies. Give me a tip, please. You got Zendaya right, so okay, okay. Good, good. I usually get none of them right. I was losing sleep the night before, so thank you guys for that. Of course, we're going to talk for a few minutes, and then we're going to open it up to audience questions. For those attending in person, please make sure to submit your questions via the QR code that you were given. For those attending virtually, please add your questions using the Q&A function. So, of course, I want to start with Amy Pascal. I know that your producing partner isn't here, but she found the script and brought it to you. What was it about that script that just locked you in and said, 'I have to do this'?

I can confirm that's partly you. No, you know, when I heard that Amy was interested in the script, I was completely over the moon because Amy is a legend. There are a lot of phases of this process that have felt very surreal, but if I'm being honest, that was the moment when the movie felt real to me, when I felt like, 'Oh, this might actually happen. This may actually be a thing,' was when I heard that Amy wanted to do it.

I love that. Well, walk me back to your process with writing it, because that story is incredible. I don't know if everyone here in the room and watching virtually is aware of where the idea was born. So tell me where that was born and how you kind of worked to what we finally see on screen.

Yeah, of course. Prior to writing the script, I hadn't been that massive of a sports fan or a tennis fan. Then around 2018, I just happened to turn on the US Open, and it was the final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. There was this very controversial call from the umpire where he accused Serena Williams of receiving coaching from the sidelines. I had never heard of this rule. Serena Williams was saying, 'That didn't happen, I would never do that.' But immediately, this struck me as this intensely cinematic situation where you're all alone on your side of the court, and there's this one other person in this massive tennis stadium who cares as much about what happens to you as you do, but you can't talk to them. For whatever reason, it just clicked in my mind: well, what if you really needed to talk about something, and what if it was something beyond tennis? What if it was something that was going on with the two of you, and what if it involved the person on the other side of the net? How would you have that conversation? How could you communicate the tension of that situation using the tools that are specific to film? So yeah, that was really where it all started for me.

No, that's beautiful. And of course, to bring your words to life, you needed the right cast and place to do that, and you guys did.

Right. Zendaya, you know, where were you in your career when Amy brought this project to you, and what made you say, 'I have to do this,' and I also want to be a producer on it as well?

I was still shooting Euphoria at the time. It's one of those things where everybody knows that especially when I'm working, it's really hard to get me to do anything else other than focus on what I'm going to do tomorrow on set. So we kind of had a mock table read at my agent's house, and I just fell in love with the script. It was brilliant, and it also made me very nervous as something to tackle because of how complicated these characters are. Also, I couldn't define what kind of movie it was. It was funny, but I wouldn't say it was a comedy. There was drama, but I wouldn't say it was just a drama. It had tennis, but it wasn't like a sports movie. So that feeling that it was kind of just everything at once in this beautiful way was terrifying but equally exhilarating and exciting. It was a character that I feel like I had never read before and never seen before, and she scared the [expletive] out of me, so I was like, 'Maybe I need to do this.' Being able to be a part of it in a creative sense and hopefully be of service to the characters and our incredible team here, and help in any way I can to bring that to life. Then hearing that Luca had read it and was interested in doing it was like a dream because I was such a fan of his work for so long. We had met once at a Fendi dinner, and he was so kind and so sweet to me. He helped me get vegetarian options because I couldn't speak Italian, and I loved him then. I had been hoping to work with him in some capacity, so the idea that it would be this was magical. We sat and we talked over Zoom, and I understood that he understood the kind of movie we wanted to create. He understood the characters in such a deep sense, down to joking about what kind of lotion she would use before she goes to bed at night. Those little details made me think, 'Oh my gosh, you know this woman, you get her, you see her.' He had that same instinct for all the characters, so it just felt like an obvious yes for me.

Those little nuances are really great in the film. Luca, let's bring you into the conversation. What about you? What made you say, 'I gotta direct this script'?

Me? [Laughter] True. Amy and I, we are courting each other since many years now. There is a sort of an unspoken love story between the two of us. But when Amy sent me the script, I was working on something else, and she was calling me every half hour to ask me if I was reading it or not. Eventually, I had to read it while working. The script was fantastic, the characters were amazing, the structure was so cinematic that I just immediately, instinctively felt that the company of Amy, the company of Zendaya, and the company of Justin — the artistic endeavor that we could all gather together in this would have been fantastic. So I think I said I was in immediately, like immediately. There were meetings, encounters with Justin, encounters with Zendaya. Something that I don't like particularly movie sets because I am a control freak, and the chaos I don't like. But I felt this was a very kind of playful — there was playfulness in making this movie that made me very happy about it.

Okay, I love that. Thank you for that answer.

Thank you for adding that. Mike, how did this project come to you, and why was it, I'm assuming, a quick yes for you to do this?

I was home in Ohio, and like Z, it's really hard for my team to get me to read anything. I got pretty much period. My agent called me, Sam, and she said, 'Mike, you have to read this script.' I was like, 'All right, well that sounds serious.' So I read it. In those moments when you're like, '[expletive], I hate when other people are right.' So, yes. Then from there, I met with Luca. Luca was in Italy, I was in Ohio. We Zoomed, we met each other, we chatted. Then they flew me to London to meet with Z, and we did a screen test there. I remember I left the screen test and I was walking around London, and I actually felt like it went atrociously wrong. I thought, 'Oh okay, well I did not book that at all.' Then Luca gave me a call and he said, 'Mike, where are you? Come back, have lunch with me.' We sat down and had lunch, and we just chatted some more and got to know each other. But the thing that stuck out with me personally that was the draw to want to do this, besides the script and the team, was that it was always going to be art that they were asking me to look at. The thing that really stuck out with me about the character was this idea of a person, this craftsman, who's fallen out of love with his craft and he's so desperately trying to get back to that place of purity, that place of — Josh uses the word 'flow' — where you're just in your work and just in your craft, and you actually love the process of doing it. I think for all of us at times, we ebb and flow throughout our artistic endeavors to always strive to find those projects that pull something out of us that makes us feel compelled to really conjure the things for ourselves to pursue it to the fullest extent that we can. That just leapt off the page with me genuinely with this character, and I thought, 'I understand this very deeply, and I would be very, very lucky to be a part of it.' Kind of what Zendaya was saying about being scared — a character scaring you and you're like, 'I got to do it, got to conquer that.' When that feeling of fear pops up within you, that's a really good indicator that you probably should do it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. Josh, what about yourself? Where did you even start with building this character? What made you say yes, and then where did you start? Did you model him after anyone in particular?

Well, what made me say yes was Luca and Zendaya. Mike wasn't on board at that point, but if Mike had been on board, that would have also contributed. I think also kind of fundamental — I remember having an early... I knew Luca before, we'd met a few years before, and we talked about making some work together for a while. What I liked about Patrick initially — I mean, I love both the characters. I actually read the script like a year or two before because I met Justin in New York. My American agent, I just moved to New York, and I was on the phone to my agent one day and I said, 'I have got no friends.' So he set me up on a friend date. We had a little date. I guess guys are under the idea that this is also work, Josh. He gave me a script to read, but really it was just, 'Josh, here's a friend to make.' So we met on Night Street. Just to embarrass you, Josh had also just won an Emmy at that point, and we were at this coffee shop and people kept coming up to congratulate him. They're not real friends. Anyway, I'd read the script before, but then when Luca asked me about doing it, I initially thought Patrick was beyond my reach. I felt like this was a character that was so confident, so front-footed, so comfortable in himself, even though he has fears and insecurities, but really he lives life to the full and is very accepting of his flaws. All those things seemed like a reach. Luca very brilliantly accepted that and made me feel comfortable around that. There was a process once we started preparing where we had to pull those things out. It didn't fit comfortably for me to not hide. He doesn't hide at all. All those things contributed, but there was no doubt really. It's such an honor and a privilege to get to work with people like this, so it was an immediate yes.

Well, now I'm going to kick to the audience questions. Apologies in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name. Again, sorry, Justin. Barbaros Taen from Hurriyet newspaper asks: 'Zendaya, Josh, and Mike, can you talk about your tennis training process for the role?'

Tennis training. Yeah, the gym work, as Josh puts it. Man, we were lucky enough to have — I call it summer camp, it was great. We got about almost six weeks before we actually started production to just work on tennis, under the support and guidance of Brad, who is incredible and an iconic person in his own right. Truthfully, I had no idea about tennis. I knew nothing. All I really knew of tennis was Venus and Serena. So again, it was one of those things that was terrifying as a challenge to take on because you're supposed to be a great tennis player, and I've never been a great tennis player. I was incredibly nervous showing up, and I think we were all incredibly nervous showing up on that first day. We did tennis training beside each other, we worked out beside each other, and we also had rehearsal beside each other, which was such a privilege to have that time to work on the script and get to know each other. During that tennis training time, I was driving myself crazy trying to become a tennis player. I was trying to learn the fundamentals and make sure... I remember when I first started hitting the ball, it would go off into trees, never even close to the court. I was like, 'Damn, I got a long way to go.' Eventually, with tennis, if you're picking it up, it's not a game you can just pick up. Unless you've been playing since age 4, it's not happening for you. I would come in and feel like I got it, like something clicked, and then you come in the next day and you can't do it, and you can't recreate it. You're like, 'Damn, back to square one.' Also, they're feeding me balls. I once asked, 'Can I try to see what it feels like to return a serve? Hit me a real one.' The way that thing flew by me so fast — at the time I still had glasses, I've since had LASIK, so I couldn't even see the dang thing. At some point I realized my approach has to be different because this isn't working. As soon as the ball's flying at me, all my fundamentals and form are gone; I'm just trying to hit it or get out of the way. Eventually, especially watching Luca, he was starting to build these scenes and choreograph them because every shot in these tennis sequences was storyboarded and so thought out and meticulous. So I said, 'Okay, maybe that's how I need to approach it too. Let me approach it like choreography. I'm a dancer, so let me dance this thing out.' I began to focus on our amazing tennis doubles, and I wanted to sync up with her, understand her footwork, her patterns, her movements, and just try to make it as seamless as possible. I wanted to look like her mirror. I'd record myself next to her and watch it back: 'Her arms a little more, her shoulders a little bit, she's quicker on her feet.' That became my entryway into looking like a tennis player because I knew I wasn't going to be one, but I could fake it. So that's where we got. The training was pretty intense, and it was great to do it beside them because I know they were just as committed, struggling together.

Eric Green from Immersive Media asks: 'Luca, can you please tell us about the making of the kinetic tennis sequence at the end, because it is quite breathtaking?' Thank you.

Like Zendaya just said, we rehearsed a lot. We rehearsed the dramatic part of the movie many, many days, and then we were on the court every day for a few hours, re-watching the point, understanding how those sports actions had to be reflective of the dynamic between the characters. Basically, I started from the measure, the unit of every little gesture, and we adapted until we understood that the final sequence, the final moment, had to be kind of a silent sequence, or a non-dialogue sequence, that was going to be very clear to everyone in the audience to understand the emotional ramp-up that had to be built there. So it took a long time of conception, drawing, shooting. I think that sequence, the last 10 minutes, took us eight days to shoot, more or less, which is incredible. Then a lot of work in post-production.

Okay, okay. Thank you for that. Love this question. Kennedy Mason from Spelman College says: 'As a person heavily interested in music and sound, something I adore about Luca's films is his usage of an excellent soundtrack and score. For the cast, I was wondering what song kept you grounded during this film experience and helped get you into character?'

We got asked this yesterday, and we all struggled a bit with it, didn't we? Interesting. But I have a playlist on Spotify which is called 'Boston Marathon.' I didn't do the Boston Marathon, but I started it because Mike and I went to watch the Boston Marathon while we were shooting Challengers, and it inspired me. Then a year later, I did do the London Marathon, and so I started this playlist which I think in my head now is my London Marathon playlist, but I think it must have stemmed from making Challengers. The lead-up... The follow-up question to that is, 'Name a song on it,' and I can't. So I can't make the playlist public. There is music out there.

What about you guys? Is there any song in particular?

No, I can't think. As soon as people ask you specifics with things like this, all of a sudden you can't think of anything. It's like I've never heard a song before. Goes right out of your head. What is music?

AJ Aaron Navaro from La Cronica de Hoy asks: 'Mike and Josh, how did you make the toxic bromance between your characters work so well?'

Well, we hate each other.

Do I? Mike does this joke sometimes, and sometimes he follows it up with the punchline of, 'We don't act, just kidding, we're great friends.' But in the UK last week, we did an interview where he committed so much to this joke that it sounded like I bullied him. It was extraordinary. But I think today he's going to give Josh... Genuinely, in the middle of the interview, he was screaming at me, 'Please tell them that you're joking.' Look, we had, as Z was saying earlier, a very luxuriant time six weeks prior to actually shooting. By the time we got to Boston, we had six weeks of training and rehearsal with Luca and Justin and Amy, and just getting to know each other. On top of that, Josh and I would spend any other time that we had just running lines around Boston, walking around. We'd go to the park, walk around the city, and just run the lines. By the time we actually got to those scenes, Josh and I also commuted every day together, so we spent so much time together. We knew each other's lines like that, so we were able to just get in and be like a tennis match, be right on top of each other. When you're an actor and you're given the opportunity to work with another amazing actor like Josh, with such strong instincts and specific choices, Josh pings me something and that gives me something to actually play with, to throw him back. I think we both understood these people pretty well. We understood the roles that we needed to play for each other, and it gave us the freedom in the space to play and make choices. Luca was really great in terms of feeding us ideas and directing us in the position that we needed to go. Between the three of us, we just very much knew instinctually what direction we all kind of wanted the story to go.

Thank you for that. Ivon from Pride.com asks: 'At the premiere, you asked the audience not to judge Tashi too harshly, but I've heard an overwhelming consensus that people love Tashi being a baddie. Have you learned to embrace her being a bit of a villain, or do you feel like she's just misunderstood?'

Well, I think the response might be just the refreshing nature that it's a female character that doesn't have to be likable and doesn't care about you liking her, and doesn't ask for forgiveness. I think that is probably refreshing to some people, and I understand that. That was refreshing to me when I read her, and that was why I wanted to play her. But I say that before screenings sometimes because I feel like it's our natural instinct to judge people in general, so it's easy to judge these characters. I understand that because we all do. I think the beauty of this film is that your mind will change because I know mine has every time I watch it, every time I read it, every time we were playing. Honestly, I had preconceived notions about the characters, and then these guys came in with their performances alone changed my perception of these characters, what they brought to them, how they embodied them, the life they gave them. So I think it's one of those things that is ever-changing. How I feel or my perception of the characters is ever-changing. Every time I watch it, and I made the dang thing, I'm still surprised. Every time I go, 'Oh, this time I'm kind of feeling for this character,' or 'This time I'm team so-and-so.' You're constantly living with them and learning something new about them. I say that only because I know that you'll be wrong. You're going to have an initial reaction, and then you'll come back and you'll change it. That's the beauty of it. And just to empathize with them... Sounds like you were glad you did a character that scared you. For sure.

I love that. Don't kill me, guys, but I'm going to thank everyone so much for joining us today and remind you guys that Challengers is in theaters next Friday, April 26th. Thank you guys so much for making this art and for being here today. Thank you. Thank you for your time.