Challengers’ Steamy Three-Way Kiss Almost Didn’t Make the Cut, Cast Addresses the Film’s Exhilarating Ending

Summary

• Director Luca Guadagnino confirms that the steamy three-way kiss scene wasn’t originally written to appear in
  Challengers.
• Guadagnino introduces a complex love triangle involving actors Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor’s characters in the romantic sports drama.
• Challengers’
  exhilarating ending sparks lively debates among viewers, with a conclusion that leaves room for interpretation and meaningful discussions.

Warning! The Following Contains SPOILERS for Challengers.

While fans will continue to interpret the exhilarating ending of Challengers, it’s certainly a much different conclusion than filmmaker Luca Guadagnino offered those who watched his 2017 romance, Call Me by Your Name. This time around, moviegoers are treated to a much more electric and uplifting final scene for this particular story. However, another integral sequence, which is the steamy three-way kiss between actors Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, almost didn’t even make it to the screen. Guadagnino said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“I don’t think that was in the script at the beginning. Not at all.
We discussed at length with Justin [Kuritzkes – screenwriter]
the concept that the triangle needs to flesh out the possibility that all the corners touch
— that if you’re jealous of someone, you’re not jealous of your partner, you’re jealous also not to be picked by the rival.
You want to be the object of the affection of the rival,
so you’re jealous of not being part of it as much as
you are jealous of your partner being chosen.”

Challengers

4/5

Release Date April 26, 2024

Writers Justin Kuritzkes

Studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Pascal Pictures

In the pivotal scene, which leads to the love triangle being set in motion, Tashi (Zendaya) engages in a torrid three-way kiss with Patrick (O’Connor) and Art (Faist). However, Tashi slowly removes herself from the tryst and watches as the boys continue making out while she revels in being right about their attraction for one another. Guadagnino continued:

“The idea that Tashi can see what they don’t want to see, or they cannot see
, which is this incredible attraction that
they have not only for her but also for one another.
And so
Justin made the very funny scene, wrote beautiful dialogue,
and I thought that the mundanity of this hotel room in Queens was quite touching in portraying youth.”

Challengers Cast Dishes on the Emotional Ending

If tennis is indeed a relationship, as Zendaya’s character Tashi insists, the ending of Challengers appears to be a win for everyone. While the victor of the film-long tennis match isn’t revealed, Art’s (Faist) exhilarating slow-motion leap over the net and into the arms of Patrick (O’Connor) elicits Tashi to scream, “Come on!” For those who haven’t seen the romantic drama, it’s a callback to the former athlete winning a pivotal match of her own prior to the main characters engaging in that sexy three-way kiss scene of the critically praised sports drama.

Tashi yells out, because it appears — here’s where the debate begins — that the trio has healed their wounds as Art and Patrick lovingly embrace on the tennis court. Faist himself offered up his own opinion of the film’s conclusion, as seen through the eyes of the fans, in a brand-new interview. Faist told EW:

“The exciting thing about this film is that people are going to have an opinion,
and a very visceral one. And one that allows people to have that kind of an exchange where it’s like, ‘I think this.’ ‘No, I think this, and here’s why.’ And
they actually are coming out of the theater engaged in a conversation about the story.
People are leaving the theater engaged still with the material itself,
and that’s in itself the joy for me.”

Related Zendaya Reacts to Watching Challengers’ Steamy Scenes With Her Parents: ‘It’s Not Like Out First Rodeo’ Zendaya shares her candid thoughts on sitting with her parents behind her at Challengers’ world premiere.

O’Connor adds:

“At the end of the film,
they have found each other.
They’ve been all searching for a way and getting it terribly wrong,
searching for a way to satisfy that need, that hunger for each other.
And they’re all trying to find their way in different ways.
For Art, maybe it’s getting out of tennis and being with the family,
reconnecting with his wife.

For Tashi, it’s finding that satisfaction in tennis
that she lost by having her career stunted. For Patrick, it’s also finding that feeling of flow when
he was playing tennis with Art as a youngster,
or
watching Tashi playing tennis
as a youngster.”

Challengers is now playing in theaters. And be sure to check out MovieWeb’s Challengers review, which describes the romantic drama as “sex, sports & thumping dance music.”

Check out the second official trailer for
Challengers
below:

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