In order to deliver authenticity to every ace, volley, serve and rally, the stars of Luca Guadagnino‘s tennis drama “Challengers” each trained for up to six hours a day for three months on the court.
In the film, two former friends and double partners Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) face off in a challengers match years after falling out over their pursuit of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). Brad Gilbert, tennis coach to Andy Murray and Coco Gauff, worked extensively with the actors to make sure they could convincingly become sports stars.
Faist had just finished filming Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” when he began training for “Challengers.”
“Mike had to eat between 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day because they wanted him to gain weight,” Gilbert tells Variety. “He was coming off ‘West Side Story,’ and he was super thin. He had to work on his tennis and gain like 30 pounds. I had Zendaya in Los Angeles, so we got her on a program right away, and Josh was working, so [Faist] had the latest start.”
Of their intensive tennis training, Gilbert says, “Their days started early. We’d be on the road at 6 a.m. to start training, and they were in the tennis center until noon, and then they’d have a full afternoon of acting.”
Gilbert explains that Art was the only one who had a set game plan and style, and so he trained Faist to hit the ball in a specific way. “Mike’s character was built on that classic Roger Federer and Pete Sampras play. He’s supposed to have a big serve and a one-handed backhand, so we had more of an idea with his game.”
As for Zendaya, Gilbert sent her plenty of tapes to study and even took her to a handful of tennis matches. “What helped her early on was I took her to a Pepperdine University vs. Arizona State men’s match,” Gilbert says. “We went to UCLA for a women’s match. When the match was over, Z didn’t want to leave. She stayed and took a lot of notes, and I think the visual of seeing it live helped her form some thoughts on her character.”
In the end, Guadagnino was so impressed with Zendaya’s shots that he barely ever used her double.
Gilbert collaborated with Guadagnino frequently in order to ensure that each point was carefully executed to match Justin Kuritzkes’ script. “We specifically worked on those points and how they were going to go. We couldn’t just let the points roll like in a real match, because they were scripted points,” Gilbert says. “Luca would say, ‘I want it to play out a bit longer, let’s see what that looks like,’ so my wife Kim — who also trained with the actors — and I worked on that.”
Gilbert was blown away by the cast’s performances both on and off the court. “They are all incredibly dedicated and professional,” he says of Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor.
“Challengers” was originally slated to open in September 2023, coinciding with the U.S. Open, but was delayed due to the actors strike. After training the cast, Gilbert went back to coaching Gauff for the U.S. Open, which she went on to win. When he went back to Gauff, Gilbert was inspired by his time on set. “In some sense, and I told Zendaya this, she somehow prepared me to get ready to coach Coco,” he says.
Source Agencies
