‘Challengers’ Star Zendaya Says “It’s Very Odd” Her Kissing Scenes Get A Lot Of Attention: “I Have Noticed That, With Me Specifically”

Armando Tinoco

23 April 2024 at 7:32 pm·2-min read

Zendaya wonders why her kissing scenes get a lot of attention when she’s just doing her job.

While promoting her upcoming film Challengers, in which she co-stars with Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, the Euphoria star said, “It’s very odd” that when she does a kissing scene, it seemingly gets a lot of attention.

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“I have no idea. I don’t know if it’s because they want it to be, like, a viral thing, I don’t know. But I have noticed that, with me specifically,” Zendaya said during an appearance on Jake’s Takes after the show’s host brought on the “abnormal” amount of attention those particular scenes generate. “I feel like other actors don’t… if it was somebody else here, you probably wouldn’t [have] asked that question.”

She continued, “But yeah, it is a part of my job, and it is a completely normal part of the job despite, I think, maybe other people’s perception of our job. But yeah, it is odd.”

Zendaya was grateful that the show’s host brought up the subject because she had noticed it before thinking, “This is weird.”

Watch Zendaya’s full interview before.

Challengers follows Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy who is now a coach. Tashi is married to a tennis champion who is on a losing streak and soon finds himself facing off against his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

During the L.A. premiere of Challengers, Zendaya talked to Deadline about working with director Luca Guadagnino.

“Luca is brilliant. I think he has such a beautiful understanding about the human experience and deeply understands characters on another level,” she told us. “That was very apparent from the first time I spoke with him about this film and about these characters. He just knew who these people were in a deep sense and understood them, their hopes, their wants, their dreams, their desires, their fears.”

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