Zendaya is revealing what some tennis greats thought about her latest performance. ET’s Denny Directo spoke to the actress and her Challengers co-stars about their film, and Zendaya shared how Serena and Venus Williams responded to the project.
While Zendaya said she hadn’t talked to Venus about the film yet — “fingers crossed” she’d approve of her tennis skills, the actress said — she did speak to Serena in regards to the flick.
“She was like, ‘I know there definitely weren’t real [tennis] balls,” Zendaya revealed of Serena. “She knows. She’s the best of the best.”
Serena did have some praise for Zendaya, as the Euphoria star recalled, “She did say that it was great considering that I had never, never touched a tennis ball before.”
That has to be welcome news for Zendaya, who previously “apologized in advance” to the sisters for her onscreen tennis abilities.
In addition to the Williams sisters, whose famed Vogue look Zendaya recently recreated, Zendaya said that some of her family members, including her parents, have seen the movie, something she finds “hilarious” given its sexy nature.
“They all know the rating of the movie. They know what it’s about. They’ve been forewarned. And they’ve all seen Euphoria, so it’s not like our first rodeo or anything,” she noted of her HBO series. “It was funny ’cause obviously I’ve seen the movie many times, so I know what’s coming. They were all sitting behind me and I got to watch them watch and slowly just be like, ‘Oh God.'”
When it came to filming those sexy scenes, Zendaya’s co-stars Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor told ET that it’s “practical” more than anything.
“That’s the magic of film making, is what comes out of the screen,” Josh said. “When I was watching it, it’s really racy, really exciting, on the edge of your seat. In reality, we laughed. [During the] three-way kiss scene, there’s a guy really close to us holding a boom and a camera right here.”
Zendaya added, “It’s not just the three of us. It’s a whole crew also who’s a part of the scenes.”
Challengers will hit theaters April 26.
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