Zendaya’s Challenge
To Be Young, Gifted & Black
Dearest Raeder,
Most days when you scroll your social media feed, especially these days, you will see a host of gorgeous images of actress Zendaya. Born Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman to two teachers, she is the youngest of six siblings with a host of nieces and nephews within a big close-knit Californian family. As the only child from her parents marriage, an interracial union, she was raised in a loving multi-racial household. Given that her African American father, Kazembe Ajamu Coleman, is her supportive manager and her European-America mother, Claire is Stoermer, is a beloved educator with a passion for theatre who nurtured her daughter’s talent, no wonder Zendaya appears very grounded. I have seen Zendaya in a number of her projects beginning with Spiderman and Euphoria, but her latest foray into art-house cinema in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers (2024) gives me a whole new perspective and feelings of delight for this young, gifted and black actress forging a path in Hollywood that we quite literally have never seen before.
I was standing on my rooftop deck a few nights ago talking with my neighbor who accompanied me to screen Challengers. It was a few hours after we watched the film, which I thoughts was really interesting, inventive and sensual, like most of Luca Guadagnino’s films. Written by Justin Kuritzkes, I can say off the bat that I really enjoyed the film, though I think it is a polarizing feature because all the main characters have complicated, sometimes unlikable personalities. The film begins with Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, an 18-year old tennis prodigy on a trajectory to stardom when a tragic accident derails her coveted career.
About a year or so before her accident, Tashi meets two young tennis players and best friends, from more affluent backgrounds in Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). From the moment the young men witness Tashi play on the court they are transfixed with a kind of competitive lust for this intimidating, beautiful woman. They sheepishly invite her to their shared hotel room following a day of competitive tennis where Tashi outpaced everyone. Art and Patrick have a curious bromance/rivalry that feels electric when they are near one another, whether on or off the court.
In a scene that I really don’t want to spoil, but has caused a raucous, the trio end up on a bed together where Tashi orchestrates an erotic comingling of the three. The hotel room scene though titillating, reveals a great deal about the true nature of how these competitive athletes revolve around each other throughout the film. Initially Tashi dates Patrick before their competitive natures break them apart. Then, years later, Tashi marries Art, who is clearly more demurring to her nature even after she transitions from a dominant player to a domineering coach/wife. Tashi is a woman driven to win, but no longer able to access the high of tennis after her injury; reduced to a life lived through the achievements of others when she’d rather be playing.
In preparing for this piece on Zendaya and Challengers I wanted to also reflect on who Zendaya is in this moment. What or who does she represent? I didn’t watch Zendaya on Disney because that was never my network as a kid plus I came of age in the 1900s. I first noticed her when she was cast in Marvel’s Spiderman with her now boyfriend, Tom Holland. I had no idea of her popularity, no real understanding of her child-star status, but I thought her performance was a good “black Daria” like take on Mary Jane. However, when I watched Euphoria (2019-) is when I knew Zendaya had range, but perhaps more than that, she has depth of feeling or at least she recognizes the value in portraying women with big emotions that draw people to them whether as wannabe saviors on the HBO series or lustful admirers in Challengers.
I recently watched her lockdown era Netflix feature from writer/director Sam Levinson (creator of Euphoria) co-starring John David Washington. The black-and-white two-hander called Malcom & Marie is theatrical in its character with only two cast members set in one location for nearly two hours. It watched like a baby-faced, black, upwardly mobile, Malibu drenched version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf…which I gotta say, I’m not really mad at. The film is a bit overly self-aware (in the manner a lot of what young people like today—see Barbie), but what was relayed to me, having also watched Dune 2 (2024) this year, is that as much as Zendaya understands her beauty draws people in, she really wants you to stick around for the acting or at least the storytelling.
I read a Vulture piece positing whether Zendaya is leading lady material, since this is her first feature film as a leading lady—she’s also a producer which means her fingerprints are all over this production. In a spirited exchange between thoughtful critics, black essayist and critic Angelica Jade Bastién rebuffs the lavish praise Zendaya receives for her performances. Bastién asserts, “To riff on a line from the movie [Challengers]: Zendaya does ‘love her little white boys’. She has said that she knows she’s the industry’s ‘acceptable version of a Black girl,’ and I think that’s something we have to keep in mind when watching her.” It’s a fair argument given the mainstream nature of her career, often co-starring with white men.
But the fact that Zendaya is self-aware enough to recognize colorism in stark terms and the racial dynamics she is surfing, within an increasingly anti-DEI (see anti-black) industry, I think that is worthy of appreciation. In looking at her career more closely than Bastién, I suspect, I am also heartened by Zendaya’s consistent effort to uplift those around her including black artists in her world from her hair and makeup artists to her famed long-term fashion stylist to her assistant (who plays the umpire in Challengers climactic scene) to on screen work with folks like John David Washington or Storm Reid. She’s not Viola Davis in terms of gravitas, craft or an embodied black womanhood (she’s only 27 mind you), but I’m curious to see how she evolves.
I initially thought whether I should add “ish” to the end of “black” in the title of this piece, but upon deeper reflection and observation of Zendaya, I don’t think that’s accurate. She’s black and she knows it. I credit her family for that: a whole bunch of black sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews from the Bay area originally before the family migrated to Los Angeles when Zendaya was in high school. Her family has white and mixed-race members as well, but I think with her father managing her career, she kind of vibes like Beyoncé—hardworking, diligent, patient, trend-setting and respectful of her blackness. She may well end up like Zoe Saldaña, a black Latina quietly changing the game as the first actor in Hollywood to have 4 films gross over $4 billion. But I think Beyoncé is a better comparison because like Queen Bey, I see her striving to own her narrative and more boldly create space so more black (and mixed race) people may follow.
Returning to Challengers, it’s a film I will watch again whether in theaters or on demand once it’s streaming. But I recommend seeing it on the big screen—always. Luca Guadagnino is one of my cinematic heroes. I’ve seen most of his films and if you like his beautifully composed, lush explorations of intimate relationships between complicated, unexpected characters, then you’ll love Challengers. The film is more high energy, music saturated and driven than many of his other more slowly unfurling productions set in Europe. But I suppose, this is Guadagnino’s merging of his typical filmic language with America’s competitive edge epitomized in the three athletes at its center. Challengers explores desire, control, conflict, physical ecstasy (through sport), fleeting youth, mischief and human connection. After nabbing the number one spot last weekend, raking in $15 million, I think for Zendaya as actor and producer, she’s meeting the many challenges she faces with an excellent game face.
With Love During End Times,
Agunda