Daniel Craig has aired his views on Challengers, starring Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and Mike Faist, admitting that the love triangle between the trio is laughable
Daniel Craig couldn’t resist sharing his views on Luca Guadagnino’s sexually-charged movie, Challengers.
The actor who is best known for playing James Bond recently starred in Guadagnino’s latest movie, Queer, alongside Drew Starkey, with the former’s character, William Lee becoming infatuated by by Eugene Allerton (Starkey). But in a discussion with Josh O’Connor who starred in Challengers, the 56-year-old aired his true feelings about the sports-romance movie.
Challengers, starring O’Connor, Zendaya and Mike Faist follows the love triangle between the trio as they navigate their feelings for one another. One particular scene, which stands out to Craig is what he describes as “the hotel scene.” During the clip, Zendaya character, Tashi Duncan is seen kissing her partner, Patrick Zweig (O’Connor) and her tennis coach, Art Donaldson (Faist), before the two men begin to explore their own sexual bond with one another as Tashi leaves the room.
But that isn’t the only scene between Art and Patrick which explores their sexual chemistry, with the two guys getting intimate on the tennis court. Later on, viewers find the pair exploring their bond further in a heated kiss scene, as well as being almost naked together in a sauna.
Speaking to Josh for Variety’s Actors on Actors, Hoylake-born Daniel said: “The scene in the hotel room, where they don’t have sex with each other, is the biggest c**k tease in movie history,” while Josh also chuckled. Reflecting further on the movie, he added: “Obviously, I love the end of [Challengers].
“I love where it goes to: All of that setup, and you get to the moment. Which is what Luca’s about — he wants to hit the moment of love. And you see a love between the two guys that trumps everything around it. I’m just a sucker for it. What else is there?” Meanwhile, Josh, who found fame playing Prince Charles on The Crown responded: “I think that’s what was going on in this film: Yes, there’s the tennis backdrop, but the desire these three people had for each other that’s torn apart… And there’s an invisible magnet that’s dragging them back together. That was definitely a Luca component that was bubbling underneath.”
The filmmakers behind Challengers previously explained that the sexually charged moment wasn’t originally due to feature in the film at all. The script was penned by Patrick in the USA, but it wasn’t until he began collaborating with Luca that the raunchy moment was included. Luca previously opened up about his decision to inject extra steam into the scene.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the Italian filmmaker said: “I don’t think that was in the script at the beginning. Not at all. We discussed at length with Justin the concept that the triangle needs to flesh out the possibility that all the corners touch — that if you’re jealous of someone, you’re not jealous of your partner, you’re jealous also not to be picked by the rival.”
He continued: “You want to be the object of the affection of the rival, so you’re jealous of not being part of it as much as you are jealous of your partner being chosen.” Zendaya has also opened up about the surprising way the script and film evolved. She said: “Yeah, there were some drafts… Luca and Justin worked on the script in Italy before we even all got together. I believe [Kuritzkes] hadn’t really done a bunch of drafts of the original thing… and while it was absolutely brilliant, I know that Luca wanted to infuse his own things into it, and so that collaboration started quite early.”
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