Mar 29
Josh O'Connor Talks Getting Buff for Roles and His Threeway Kiss in 'Challengers'
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 3 MIN.
Josh O'Connor is in some of the hottest films of the spring season: The Italian odyssey "La Chimera," which is now select theaters. And, of course, the highly anticipated threeway romp, "Challengers," starring alongside It Girl Zendaya, Mike Faist, and directed by "Call Me By Your Name's" Luca Guadagnino.
With so much screentime, O'Connor recently told Vanity Fair that his roles have taken him to a place he has never been: the gym.
Source: YouTube
"When I went over to Boston to do this film ('Challengers'), Luca was like, 'We're in the gym.' We did three or four weeks of: two hours in the morning, tennis; two hours gym; rehearsal every day," O'Connor told VF about the filming experience. "I was forced into going to the gym. There was no option. And apart from the fact that I felt amazing, I suddenly had all this regret from when I was a kid–if only I'd discovered the gym earlier, maybe I could have been an athlete."
If only! But it seems O'Connor is doing just fine for himself as an actor. In "Challengers," O'Connor plays a tennis athlete who falls for a beautiful and talented tennis star (Zendaya). But things get spicy when another tennis player (Faist) is also trying to get her attention.
Yes, it's a love triangle, and the trailer for the film teases a very steamy threeway kiss. About the experience of being 1/3 of a make out session, O'Connor said Guadagnino had a "very clear idea" of how things should go.
"The idea of me and Mike, with Zendaya in the middle–this idea that it's kissing, kissing, and then it turns into this three-way kiss–and then suddenly Mike and I are kissing," he explained. "That was very clear. We all kind of figured out, how are we going to do this? How does this work?"
There was some improve involved but O'Connor says it all felt very natural.
"We did little things, like, when they're sitting on the floor and she goes onto the bed, I was up in a flash and not holding back," he said. "That came from us knowing our characters well, and knowing the dynamics between the three of us."
Sounds hot. Will you be watching? See the trailer for "Challengers below.
