Tag: Zendaya

Tennis star Ben Shelton had a silly excuse to dislike the Challengers movie but liked its popularity

The young tennis star didn’t understand the plot of the Zendaya tennis movie.

As one of the top young American tennis players in the world, it was fascinating to hear what Ben Shelton thought of Challengers (2024).

The 21-year-old tennis star, who currently holds the No. 13 men’s singles ranking, was asked to share his opinion on the popular sports film starring Zendaya that was released earlier this year.

Shelton told Interview Magazine that although he had seen the movie, he “wasn’t the biggest fan” of it. He admitted that while they did a “great job” with the tennis sequences, the plot didn’t really work for him.

Warning: Some potential spoilers for this movie are mentioned.

According to Shelton, it looked realistic when the ball was moving.

But he said that he struggled to “understand” the plot of the film. For example, was Zendaya’s character actually in a love triangle with the two guys?

Meanwhile, he also had some trouble with the ending. Without giving away too many spoilers, Shelton struggled with who won the final match between the two male leads. He wondered why they embraced instead of depicting an actual winner.

Despite these complaints, though, he was still happy that “a lot of people liked it” likely because it gave increased attention to his sport.

Shelton is currently competing in the US Open in New York City.

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Challengers cements Zendaya with leading lady status

The tennis drama exceeded expectations in every way.

So far, 2024 is the year of Zendaya. With Dune: Part Two taking over theaters to the tune of nearly $700 million worldwide, Challengers releasing to rave reviews on April 26 and the 27-year-old serving as a co-chair for this year’s Met Gala, the actress is thriving.

As the lead in Challengers, director Luca Guadagnino’s fabulous tennis drama, Zendaya has put forth her best performance to date. She plays Tashi Duncan, a tennis prodigy that turns to coaching after a career-ending injury. Zendaya is utterly wonderful. Her character is thrown into an emotional — and sometimes physical — relationship with best friends and tennis competitors, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor).

The love triangle is fueled by passion, mind games, competition and tennis as we journey over a 13-year span in their lives from playing the junior U.S. Open to the competitive tennis circuit.

O’Connor is mischievous and conniving as the rich kid trying to prove he can make his own way (while pretending he doesn’t have the world’s biggest safety net waiting to save him) as Zweig.

It’s a masterful performance from the The Crown actor, and you find yourself both drawn to him and hating him as quickly as one can volley a shot over the net. Faist’s insecurity and deference to Tashi is the ideal opponent for O’Connor, but his soft mannerisms belie a much more manipulative undercurrent.

Challengers is a tense, thrilling and hilarious journey, perfectly punctuated by an almost scene-stealing score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It’s hard to draw comparisons to anything else, because this movie feels unlike anything I’ve seen to date.

There’s a moment late — don’t worry, no spoilers — where you realize something monumental is going to happen. Guadagnino masterfully builds up the scene, and yet somehow manages to keep the payoff remarkably high despite the expectations washing over you mid-scene. The entire theater gasped or leaned forward in their seats or both. A 10-out-of-10 theater moment.

Challengers has consumed my thoughts since I walked out of the theater, and that’s the highest praise I can give. Go see it immediately.

Movie: Challengers
Release Date: April 26 
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Stars: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Zendaya and Tom Holland adorably sang Whitney Houston at the BNP Paribas Open

Just the two most delightful people.

Tom Holland and Zendaya are just too cute. The pair of actors met on the set of Marvel’s 2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming, and started dating in July of the same year. The couple is utterly adorable, even if the amount of time spent in the spotlight is not high.

MORE: 15 utterly gorgeous photos of Zendaya from the Dune: Part Two press tour and premieres

The Dune: Part Two star and Peter Parker actor made an appearance at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California over the weekend, sitting together and taking in the tournament. With Zendaya starring in the upcoming tennis-based movie, Challengers, it tracks that the duo made it court side.

Caught on camera, Holland and Zendaya adorably bantered with each other and joined in a chorus of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston.

26 stunning photos of the Dune: Part Two cast from their international press tour and premieres

A beautiful cast means beautiful pictures.

The highly-anticipated sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1, and expectations are through the roof. With a star-studded cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux, there’s a lot of charisma and style.

MORE: 15 utterly gorgeous photos of Zendaya from the Dune: Part Two press tour and premieres

Over the past few weeks, the cast has been traveling the world from Paris, France to Seoul, South Korea to Los Angeles, California for the press tour and world premieres of Denis Villeneuve’s sequel to 2022’s Dune.

They looked glamorous at each and every stop, stunning around the world. Here are some of our favorite looks.

15 of our favorite photos from the SAG Awards red carpet, from Zendaya to Austin Butler

The stars were out in California on Sunday night.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards took place Sunday evening (February 26), bringing glitzy and glamorous celebrities from television and movies to the red carpet in Los Angeles. As to be expected, the stars shone brightly in gorgeous dresses and stunning tuxedos.

Although everyone looked fabulous, we’ve picked 15 of our favorite shots from Sunday night’s affair. Unsurprisingly, the Everything Everywhere All At Once crew of Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu shone — the former also took home a SAG Award — and Austin Butler made everyone else look bad just by being too handsome.

Enough talking. Let’s get to the pictures.