[Filling the Space is a flexible column where our writers could vent, deconstruct, and work their way around the emotions brought on by TV, films, books, music, and key moments in pop culture. This isn’t meant to be analytical, but instead, a way for us to explore our feelings.]
Don’t even get me started on Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist’s snubs for their work as Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson, respectively, but the more I think about it, the more frustrating it becomes that Zendaya wasn’t given more credit for her role as Tashi Duncan in Challengers.
As a movie, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers pushed boundaries in a number of thrilling ways, but Zendaya’s performance is one of the primary reasons why the characterizations are all so powerful. Each actor effectively showcases how their character has changed in the different timelines we see them in, and they each give us something different to pinpoint how various events have shaped them. But as the face of the film, Tashi Duncan is a perfectly complex character to lead the story to great heights. And with every look, Zendaya gives us something bold, brilliant, and incredibly vulnerable to cling to.
Every expression, every frame, every word out of her mouth is carefully calculated to deliver a character journey that’s incredibly rewarding to deconstruct. The writing and directing show is plenty, but it’s hard to imagine any other actor leaving the same mark that Zendaya does. The sole shot of crying by the tree could’ve been a perfect reel to play because in that single moment, she shows us everything we need to know. The woman trying to hold back her tears is a woman who’s lost something monumental. And in context, Challengers viewers know just how enormous the loss of her career is.
For a brief moment, Zendaya makes Tashi look so small, so defeated, and so completely broken. She shows us how hard she’s fought, how hard she is fighting, and how hard she will fight, with a small glimmer that reminds us of how fleshed out the character is. It’s also astounding that there was very little reception when we note how efficiently she plays a teenager and someone in her early 30s without ever once overdoing it. From the first frame to the last, Zendaya gives her all to embodying Tashi’s pain, her frustrations, her genuine moments of joy, her disappointments, her desires, and every still quiet moment in between that reflects an exhaustion that’s so palpable at times—it’s overwhelming. Whether she’s crying, laughing, or playing tennis, it’s a role that reminds every naysayer that there’s a reason she’s an Emmy award-winning actress.
Zendaya’s prowess is unmatched, and it’s always been. As someone who’s watched almost everything she’s in, never once do I see another character in the property I’m watching. In Challengers, she is Tashi Duncan. In the MCU, she is MJ. And whatever future role she takes in, we can confidently know that she’ll embody that character in a way that’ll leave a mark, even if the property itself doesn’t.
What are your thoughts on Zendaya’s performance in Challengers? Let us know in the comments below.
First Featured Image Credit: ©2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.