- The actors took on a difficult workout regime for their roles in new tennis movie, Challengers
- They admit that they became competitive with each other – with Zendaya coming out on top
- O’Connor described actors as ‘jack of all trades’ in order to learn certain skills for different roles
If you ever assumed that acting was an easy job, think again – as the cast of Challengers will convince you otherwise.
Appearing on the latest cover of Variety, Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist revealed the, well, challenging aspects of their jobs.
All three actors spent six weeks working in the gym and on the tennis courts to prepare for their roles, which saw them star as three tennis pros – Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Patrick Zweig (O’Connor) and Art (Faist), 32 – caught in a love triangle.
And if you thought it was just a couple of hours every day, you’d be sorely mistaken – as the trio endured a routine of two hours of weightlifting and two hours of tennis every day.
Speaking about the experience, O’Connor, 32 – who shot to fame when he played a young King Charles in The Crown – revealed, “I find gyms incredibly tedious. I get bored very quickly. I always catch myself in the mirror, and I’m like, “You look so pathetic. You look rubbish holding your weights. And out of your depth. So I just never really lasted.”
Despite his reluctance to join in with the exercises, O’Connor also admitted that things got a little competitive between the group – with Zendaya coming out on top.
“There’s a piece of equipment that measures how strong your abdominals are. And Zendaya had the best abs of the three of us by a long way,” Josh said. “I remember me and Mike laughing, but we were also furious and desperately trying to improve our strength.”
Of their tennis schedules, Zendaya, 27, revealed in another interview with GQ, “If you are playing a chef, you do have to learn how to cut things properly. What the food tastes like doesn’t really matter, but you have to convincingly look like a chef. That was kind of my approach as well. I started to look at it more like choreography or a dance. I was mirroring my double to try and understand her footwork and her physicality. I knew that whatever I was serving wasn’t going to taste very good.”
O’Connor agreed.
“You know the phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of none’? That’s what we end up being,” he admitted. “Z is right. If you were playing a chef, you would learn, in the same way you do have to learn tennis. The reality is – unless you’re giving yourself a four-year period of preparation – you can’t get to the best standard. You get to a standard that works for the camera department and the other actors.
“I know how to deliver sheep from doing a film. Probably, I would not be that efficient at it if I had to work on a farm. They’d be like, ‘This guy is rubbish.’ So, you learn these skills, but not to a professional level.”
