In Challengers, Zendaya Is Excited to Play a Woman, Not a Girl

Hi, Vogue

Come get ready, come get ready with us

for the Challenge premiere.

No. One more time. Start over.

I haven t been on a set in a long time.

Hi Vogue.

Come get ready with us for the Challengers premier

in Australia.

Come on. - Come, come.

It s a big night.

[upbeat music]

Oh, hi. - Oh, hi.

I didn t see you there. - I didn t see you there.

What are we wearing? - I don t know.

How you feeling?

Like this is the first night. - Yeah.

Our first uh into the world Challengers,

[Zendaya] Challengers Universe.

This whole tennis thing is also more about a lifestyle.

Rather than a literal-

I could tell she had,

as it progressed and they got older,

she had a certain lifestyle.

You know what I mean?

I think that kind of plays into if she was a real person,

I don t know where to start.

I think for me it s either Loewe,

we start out with punching them in the face,

or we start introducing this new character to the world.

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It s our 13th year, I think.

[Producer] It s y all 13th year collaborating?

We don t miss.

we like Jordan and Pippen, baby.

[Zendaya] Period.

All those things, really, I learned through fashion,

I learned through you.

[Law] So, so here we are. - [Law] Yeah.

I m your brightest pupil

Became this beautiful canvas to help me express myself

and let me become this, this...

Okay girl. She s not a poet.

[Law] She is a poet. - Yeah, sure.

[Law] Exactly. - We love a metaphor.

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We wanna make sure that we given the people

that first right taste.

Yeah, of what we re about planning.

[Law] Yeah. - For the rest of the tour.

That s why I dye my hair.

Just so it felt different,

like a different press tour.

A little reset.

I typically don t like doing things like this

cause I m very anxious

and uncomfortable when I m getting ready and very quiet.

So if I m over talkative, that s because I m anxious.

[upbeat music]

Hi, my name is Ursula Stephen, celebrity hairstylist.

Today we are going for the old money look.

Just very rich, well to do.

It s gonna be big and sexy

and, you know, we re gonna have a little fun.

What s the most intricate thing you have to do?

It s just gonna be defining it.

We re gonna do a really pretty sparkle situation,

but just kind of defining the eyes so it doesn t get lost.

What is Challengers about?

Three complicated people whose lives are intertwined

and connected through tennis and love and hate

and all the things over many, many years.

Tashi is the center of it all.

She s a go-getter.

She s extremely driven

and kind of willing to do whatever is necessary

to get out of life what she needs.

I believe that tennis is her first love

and the boys are just kind of avenues for her

to keep playing because she can t play herself.

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I think, you know, it s, I mean, people see me as a,

as a teenager since I was a teenager for so long.

But this is really finally me being able

to play a woman closer to my own age.

Well, technically I do still play a teenager at some points,

but then she, you know, she grows up.

But I think her unapologetic harshness,

I think, is something I ve never really played a character

like that before.

I also think she s like, sometimes she s the villain.

Once you see it, it ll make more sense

why it s hard for me to describe this woman.

It was really masterfully written by Justin Kuritzkes

who wrote a really brilliant script.

It s just one of those scripts that like,

immediately I couldn t stop turning the page

and wanting to know what happened to these characters.

So I felt like I knew it was something

I wanted to be part of.

[upbeat music]

Literal.

That s how you kick it off, boom.

[Ursula] Boom. - [Ursula] I love it.

She s wearing custom Loewe from Jonathan Anderson.

Our costume designer.

Costume designer from the film.

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