Josh O’Connor said he never ate churros before filming that memorable scene in Challengers.
“What I will say is … that was my first churro and I hadn’t eaten anything that day,” the actor, 33, told Capital FM of the intimate scene in a joint interview with costars Zendaya and Mike Faist on Friday, April 26. “So I was starving and tasted my first churro – and churros are extraordinary. So I ate my one and then I ate his,” he added, pointing to Faist, 32.
Zendaya, 27, quipped, “The churro wasn’t scripted, was it? The churro was something that you guys found right, with Luca [Guadagnino]?”
O’Connor and Faist added that the bit was “definitely a Luca thing,” referring to the film’s director.
Challengers follows Tashi (Zendaya), a retired tennis star who goes on to coach her husband Art (Faist), once an average athlete, to reach the pinnacle of success as a Grand Slam champion.
After Art faces a series of defeats, Tashi motivates him to strive for victory in a showdown against his former best friend — and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend — Patrick (O’Connor.)
The aforementioned churro scene involves Patrick and Art indulging in the fried dough dessert. During a visit with his then-girlfriend Tashi at Stanford University, Patrick reconnects with Art in a cafeteria, where they share a moment of connection over the tasty treat.
“That scene in particular is just about the interplay between them,” Faist said in a separate interview with USA Today on Saturday, April 27. “So when Josh is holding that churro right to my mouth, it’s so obviously there that I’m going to take a bite of his churro. But that’s the great thing about working with Josh: He tees you up for something and I hit the ball back. It’s like a game of tennis – we’re just giving each other something to play with.”
Guadagnino told the New York Times on Friday that the scene “depicts a moment and evolution in [the duo’s] friendship that has been diverted because of a third person.”
“What we see is basically, a sort of like, a game of revelry, a sparkling between these two young boys, over Tashi, but at the same time, a jealousy that ignites the relationship. Also, because probably, these two guys are also jealous of one another, not only of Tashi,” he said.
He added, “When the sugar goes on the cheek of Patrick, Art takes it off with his hand in a very nice gesture of kindness and very intimate I would say. But at the same time, they are really like tense. And I think it’s about being jealous of one another but at the same time, wanting one another that we’re trying to play out and that Josh and Mike do in a beautiful way in the sequence.”
Challengers landed at No. 1 at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, raking in $15 million.