'He just knew who these people were': Zendaya praises Challengers director Luca Guadagnino's character understanding

Zendaya has hailed Luca Guadagnino's deep understanding of characters.

The 27-year-old star plays tennis prodigy turned coach Tashi Duncan in the romantic sports movie 'Challengers' and thinks that the director has an innate knowledge of how to craft a character.

Speaking to Deadline at the movie's Los Angeles premiere on Tuesday (16.04.24), Zendaya said: "Luca is brilliant. I think he has such a brilliant understanding about the human experience and deeply understands characters on another level.

"That was very apparent from the first time I spoke with him about this film and about these characters. He just knew who these people were in a deep sense and understood them, their hopes, their wants, their dreams, their desires, their fears."

Zendaya features alongside Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist in the film which centres on how Tashi must help end her husband's losing streak in a match against her former boyfriend and valued getting to work at close quarters with the filmmaker in her responsibility as a producer on the flick.

The 'Spider-Man' actress said: "It was so special to be able to collaborate with him, work with him, and learn from him as well. We had tennis training and all these great things.

"But we also had rehearsal, which was something he had never done before, and it was just so special for us to have that time to work on the script, dig in, and get to know each other."

O'Connor reiterated Zendaya's thoughts about the 'Bones and All' filmmaker and described it as an "honour" to be acting under his guidance.

He said: "It was a pleasure working on this movie. When you got a director like Luca, it's such an inspiration. He knows exactly what he's doing in any given scene, and it's a real treat and an honour."