Zendaya has been busy on the press tour for “Challengers,” the tennis drama which features a much-hyped kiss between the actress and costars Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, something that she’s been asked about several times. After interviewer Jake Hamilton pointed out that it’s felt like everyone is obsessed with speaking to Zendaya specifically about who she kisses or doesn’t kiss in a movie, the actress agreed, replying, “It’s very odd.”
“I feel like for a hundred years actors have been kissing other actors on the screen,” Hamilton said. “It’s literally a part of your job. You play a role that requires kissing, it’s a thing that you have to do. But I feel like when you do it, because I watched interviews from these press tours. When you do it, there’s an abnormal amount of attention paid—”
“— I know,” Zendaya cut in. “It’s very odd.”
“Do you feel like as a society people have forgotten that an actor kissing another actor is literally part of your job? Or are they using it as an excuse to get you to talk about kissing?” Hamilton added.
“I have no idea,” Zendaya replied. “I don’t know if it’s because they want it to be a viral thing, I don’t know. But I have noticed that, with me specifically. I feel like other actors don’t… if you were with somebody else here, you probably wouldn’t be asked that question. But, yeah, it is a part of my job, and it is a completely normal part of the job, I think, despite other people’s perceptions of our job.”
The topic of kissing has followed Zendaya most of her career. In 2021, she confessed that she put her foot down when asked to kiss a costar on her 2010-2013 Disney Channel show “Shake It Up” — because she hadn’t yet experienced her first kiss in real life, and didn’t want it to happen on a TV show.
The press tour for “Challengers” has included several awkward questions about kissing. After Australian Channel 7’s Edwina Bartholomew asked the actress which of her costars is the “best kisser,” Zendaya visibly grimaced. Faist quickly stepped in and commented that O’Connor was the best.
Days before that, O’Connor was asked if he felt “awkward” kissing “Spider-Man’s girlfriend” at the London premiere for the film. A visibly surprised O’Connor replied, “Oh, not awkward at all! She’s great, she’s brilliant, she’s an amazing actor, and yeah, it was lovely to work with her.”
Zendaya and her “Dune” costar Timothée Chalamet also faced a barrage of questions about kissing throughout the movie’s promotional tour. While speaking to Brut Media at the Paris premiere, he pointedly explained, “We’re pushing 30 and have been great friends for years. That was the nature of the job on this one and the nature of the script. It’s not more complicated than that.”
Watch the exchange with Zendaya in the video above.
