Challengers star Josh O’Connor has said sex scenes in films are “the least sexy thing in the world.”
READ MORE: ‘Challengers’ review: Zendaya’s titillating tennis drama is one of the year’s best movies
O’Connor starred in the Luca Guadagnino film Challengers earlier this year. It sees Zendaya play Tashi Donaldson, a professional tennis player who gets caught up in a love triangle with fellow players and best friends, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (O’Connor).
The film features a number of intimate moments between the characters – most notably a scene where the trio kiss each other in a hotel room.
When asked about filming sex scenes during a new interview with Vanity Fair, O’Connor said they are “a very strange thing” and referenced Challengers in his answer.
He continued: “It’s the least sexy thing in the world. You can ask Mike Faist and Zendaya about that. It might look sexy onscreen, but in reality, it’s the same as a fight sequence, a bit of action or stunt, or a dance. It’s a very choreographed, rehearsed thing, and you’re surrounded in a room full of people—someone’s holding a boom microphone and camera and lights.”
‘Challengers’ starring Mike Faist, Zendaya and Josh O’Connor. CREDIT: Warner Bros/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
O’Connor was asked about the scenes in the context of a comment from Paul Mescal who said he found it easier to film sex scenes than to play scenes that depict “tenderness after sex”.
In relation to this, O’Connor asked: “I see what [Paul] means. On the other hand, being vulnerable and intimate with another actor is more revealing, and scarier, because you’re often having to reach for something inside you that sometimes is blocked away or hidden, whatever it is, and that can be intimidating.”
Back in October, Zendaya revealed that a couple of tennis players have thanked her for making the sport “sexy” following the release of Challengers.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zendaya said: “I’ve had a couple tennis players say, ‘Thanks for making tennis sexy’ or ‘making tennis cool.’ And I was like, I feel like tennis has always been cool and sexy, but I’ll take it. A lot of people have tried to get into tennis now, so I think that’s fun.”
In a four-star review of Challengers, NME wrote: “The performances are exceptional, with off-the-scale chemistry between all three leads.”
In other news, Zendaya recently confirmed that the long-delayed third season of Euphoria will indeed feature a time jump, with the series no longer being set in high school.
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