Josh O’Connor reveals that Zendaya hand picked him for his function in Challengers (Getty)
Josh O’Connor stars within the ‘tennis threesome’ movie Challengers alongside Mike Faist and Zendaya – the latter of whom handpicked the God’s Personal Nation star for the flick.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino (of Name Me By Your Title fame), Challengers is a attractive tennis drama that follows Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach following an damage.
The twist comes when she begins teaching her husband, Artwork (Faist), out of a dropping streak, and he’s pitched to play in opposition to his former greatest pal – and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend – Patrick (O’Connor).
With the movie confirmed to have not less than one queer second between Artwork and Patrick – in addition to some suggestive sauna scenes and banana-eating – O’Connor beforehand opened up concerning the sexuality of his character; and he’s now revealed that Zendaya, who additionally produced Challengers, handpicked him for the function.
As reported by the Wall Road Journal (WSJ. Journal), Zendaya instructed journalist Ben Cohen that O’Connor was the primary individual she considered when casting: “You realize the man from The Crown?” she mentioned. “He’d be nice for this.”
O’Connor was additionally “satisfied” that his co-stars wouldn’t know who he was; “I used to be satisfied the studio and Zendaya, Mike and anybody else could be like, ‘Josh O’Who?’” he mentioned.
Talking on his character in Challengers – who, spoilers, will not be a very good individual – O’Connor mentioned that he revelled in his ‘evilness’,
“It’s the primary time I feel I’ve performed a personality who’s identical to, ‘I’m f—ing mad,’” he mentioned. “Like, ‘I’m a dick and I’m proud.’”
First reactions to Challengers have praised the movie as “deeply attractive” – with because of the love triangle on the centre of the movie.
“Yeah, I feel they’re all fluid. I feel all of them sort of love one another and so they’re figuring that out,” O’Connor defined to Selection, when requested if the male characters have been queer.
“They’re making an attempt to know the place that performs out and the way it performs out, and so I don’t know if there’s a transparent reduce reply to that, however I feel that they’re all fully tied [to each other]. They’re all in.”
Challengers arrives in US and UK cinemas on 26 April.