Challengers star Josh O’Connor gives his take on whether the boys in the movie are queer
Josh O’Connor, Zendaya and Mike Faist at the Los Angeles premiere of “Challengers” held at Regency Village Theatre on April 16, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
With the latest Challengers premiere fresh in everyone’s minds, star Josh O’Connor has revealed whether he thinks his and co-star Mike Faist’s characters are queer in the tennis drama starring Zendaya.
Excitement for Luca Guadagnino’s latest film was already one serve away from game-set-match by sheer virtue of its cast and premise alone. The L.A. premiere of the movie was held on 16 April.
Dune‘s Zendaya, The Crown star Josh O’Connor and Brokeback Mountain stage actor Mike Faist appear as tennis pros Tashi Duncan, Patrick and Art, respectively.
After the prodigious Tashi injures herself, she finds her feet in the tennis world once more by coaching her husband Art out of his losing streak. The film takes a twist for the horny when Art is drawn to face his former best friend Patrick, who also happens to be Tashi’s ex-boyfriend, and the trio is thrown into a high-stakes love triangle.
Famously, triangles have three sides – something that fans had been quick to point out as various trailers for the film dropped. Despite seeing Tashi kiss both Art and Patrick, previews for the film didn’t show the boys kissing, though some homoerotic banana-munching, semi-nude sauna scenes and Zendaya smiling at something off-screen hinted at such.
Now, with first reactions to the film out into the world, it’s been confirmed that the tennis players do indeed smooch – but speaking to Variety at an event for Challengers (April 17), O’Connor has given his take on whether they’re actually queer.
“Yeah, I think they’re all fluid. I think they all kind of love each other and they’re figuring that out,” O’Connor explained.
“They’re trying to understand where that plays out and how it plays out, and so I don’t know if there’s a clear cut answer to that, but I think that they’re all completely tied [to each other]. They’re all in.”
First reactions to the film have praised the “deeply horny” flick – which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with director Guadagnino’s back catalogue of films like Call Me By Your Name.
Challengers arrives in US and UK cinemas on 26 April.
