Daniel Craig branded a saucy scene in Challengers the 'biggest c**k tease in movie history', but Zendaya had a very different opinion on the 2024 movie.
Luca Guadagnino's sports/romance drama - which has been added to BBC iPlayer this week - focused on tennis, but action also unfolded in the bedroom, which played an integral part in the film's plot.
The hit film stars Zendaya as tennis prodigy Tashi, who finds herself embroiled in a love triangle with fellow players Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor).
Tashi marries Art, but her promising career on the court gets cut short due to an injury, prompting her to focus on coaching her husband to become a tennis star instead.
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Years later, Art finds himself competing against Patrick, his wife's ex and his former best pal.
Love and tennis are the general themes in Challengers - and James Bond actor Daniel Craig has plenty to say about Guadagnino's decision to hint at a ménage à trois.
In one sexually-charged scene, Zendaya locks lips with both Faist and O'Connor, but stops short of an actual threesome.
Although it was an anti-climax for a lot of viewers, Zendaya previously revealed that she 'loved' shooting the intimate scenes with Faist and O'Connor.
She opened up about what she thought of the three-way smooch while speaking to The Mirror ahead of Challengers' release in April 2024.
Describing her character Tashi as 'extremely driven', Zendaya said: "She's a go-getter and she is totally ruthless. The intimate scenes were so good - I loved it. I felt very lucky to be partnered with those guys.
"And whatever the moment, it always felt like they always had my back and I had theirs. We were so lucky to have a director in Luca Guadagnino who really encouraged us all to collaborate and to bring our own ideas. It was a really exciting creative process."
However, Craig has a slightly different take.
While chatting with O’Connor for Variety’s Actors On Actors segment last year, the Casino Royale star shared his thoughts on the raunchy moment in Challengers.
He praised the film's director, Guadagnino, who also directed Queer starring Craig, for staging an elaborate 'setup' of the storyline, which built up to 'the moment of love'.
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"And you see a love between the two guys that trumps everything around it," he said. "I’m just a sucker for it. What else is there?"
O’Connor then chimed in and said: "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."
Hilariously, Craig then quipped: "The scene in the hotel room, where they don’t have sex with each other, is the biggest c**k tease in movie history."
Topics: Film, TV and Film, Daniel Craig, Zendaya, Celebrity
Danni King