The actress deep dives into the role of Tashi Duncan, her biggest character departure to date, and how her Blackness informs her drive
Zendaya is a force as Tashi Duncan – her biggest character departure to date – in her latest film Challengers. Tashi is highly self-reliant with laser-focus drive, and oozes confidence and sexuality, with a manipulative streak.
Not only does Zendaya convey this complex balance with expert precision, she does so while showing the character at vastly different points in life – from pre-collegiate teen to married mother in her 30’s.
“I kept turning the page,” Zendaya says of the film’s script. “It felt like a challenge. The character was incredibly complicated, and messy, and difficult.”
Challengers, the tennis-based romantic drama from director Luca Guadagnino and co-produced by Zendaya herself, tells the story of games played both on and off the court between tennis prodigy-turned-coach Tashi, and childhood friends and tennis partners turned estranged enemies Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor).
Married to Art, currently on a losing streak after being carried to greatness under her training, Tashi’s plans to redeem his career stand to get derailed when the pair run into Patrick, Art’s former friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. Tensions run high as the past and present collide, and Tashi must decipher what it will take to win. Spanning from 2006 to 2019, we see Tashi in various stages of young adulthood as she navigates her career, family, and her complicated love life.
“For me, it was just about tracking who she is emotionally,” the actress said of taking Tashi from her teens to her thirties. “Who she is, where she’s at, and what that injury does to her. When she’s younger there’s a certain level of levity and joy – there’s a sparkle that, over time, fades and becomes jaded and desperate to hold on to…
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