Tashi Duncan Is Challengers’ Villain & Zendaya Is Its Hero

Challengers spoilers ahead. Zendaya moves beautifully. Whether she’s sashaying down a red carpet or twisting and contorting herself to show off couture gowns in a magazine spread, Zendaya’s physicality is one of her greatest strengths. She can out-pose every supermodel of her generation (my hottest take is that she is the greatest supermodel of her generation). She’s all legs and limbs gliding like a gazelle in high fashion across awards show stages. The most impressive part is that it doesn’t come naturally. During an interview with Jimmy Fallon in 2017, Zendaya did an exaggerated demonstration of her “regular” walk contrasted with the one that has captivated audiences along with her onscreen performances. Zendaya Coleman’s walk is a slouched, short shuffle (the “Coleman trudge” as her family calls it), fitting for a self-proclaimed shy introvert. Zendaya The Cultural Icon’s walk is all flowy and long, think floating princess with perfect posture. In Challengers, Zendaya’s latest role as a tennis prodigy turned pro coach, her ability to use movement to deliver a mesmerizing performance is on full display.

When we first meet Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), it’s through the eyes of her two biggest admirers, fellow young tennis stars, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Tashi is on the court, all legs and limbs turning the game into an athletic exhibition and artistic expression of her prowess that’s like watching a ballerina spin perfectly without getting dizzy, it’s confusing and dazzling, a choreographed dance that feels spontaneous by a towering talent — or like watching Venus Williams in her prime. As soon as Art and Patrick fall in love with Tashi, so does the audience. Later, at a party for the players, Tashi is still the focus of their attention and it’s where we are first introduced to the personality behind the athlete. She’s confident and poised, even when she’s dancing offbeat to Nelly’s “Hot In Herre”. In the now famous bedroom scene where the real dynamic between the throuple reveals itself, Tashi is a manipulative mastermind, egging the boys on to kiss, testing their lust for herself and for each other. When she leans back and smiles, a subtle movement only Zendaya could turn into a dissertation on desire, it’s clear that Tashi is a shit disturber. 

“I’m no homewrecker,” she says before telling the boys that the one who wins their match the next day will also win her number, effectively wrecking their home forever. This initial challenge, which will reverberate through the story, could be read as Tashi’s villain origin moment. On the surface, she’s their Yoko Ono, the woman wedged between an otherwise unshakable brotherly bond. It’s Tashi who breaks them apart, not their egos. Right? When Patrick and Tashi are dating (he won the match and her respect), she’s the cold disrupter, putting tennis over feelings. She blames her injury on a fight they had before her last match and Patrick doesn’t show up to support her, but it couldn’t possibly be his fault. Right? And a decade later, when Tashi is now married to Art and acting as his coach, she’s the one pushing him too hard. She’s the asshole who cheats — in their relationship and on the court. Right? This interpretation of Challengers is the easy one. Tashi Duncan is a villainous homewrecker because she does bad things. She’s unlikeable, competitive, disloyal, and too ambitious. Right? 

To dismiss Tashi as the Big Bad of this story does a disservice to the dimension the character is given. Sure, she’s the villain in the traditional sense, an antagonist sparring with Patrick, also brash and wicked in his own way, and toying with Art, a softer lover boy who’s down bad and content with his life as Tashi’s husband and a doting father, both second to his status as a tennis star. But whether you like her or not (and I’m betting lots of people will not), Tashi Duncan is complicated and messy, yet consistent and clear-eyed. Her one true love is tennis. She’s never deceitful about that fact. She’s attracted to ambition, which is why both Patrick and Art let her down (Patrick when they’re first dating and he refuses to work to live up to his potential, and Art when they are married and finishing his career with a grand slam win means nothing to him). Tashi is a cutthroat, ruthless athlete whose injury places her on the sidelines so instead of serving for her own legacy, she’s relying on a man to cement it for her. And it’s eating her apart inside. Her “little white boys” are inconsequential when it really comes down to it — Tashi is battling her own demons and reeling from her dashed dreams — but for a Black woman trying to navigate the tennis world, the fact that these two dudes have (or could have in Patrick’s case) everything she’s ever worked for is even more devastating. Her decisions, even the questionable ones, make more sense through that lens. 

It’s these layers of Tashi’s interior and motivations (that weren’t all there in Justin Kuritzkes’ script but director Luca Guadagnino fills in with his perfectly unhinged direction) that make this character special, and one we rarely get to see a Black woman inhabit. “I had never seen a character like her be portrayed, and especially not from someone like me,” Zendaya told Unbothered during the Challengers press junket in Los Angeles. “Often these kinds of characters need to be likeable, or demure, or apologize for their behaviour, or …  be in service to a leading male character to get emotionally to where they need to go — that is literally the only purpose of the female character, especially Black female character.” 

I’m sure there will be (valid) criticism of the fact that Tashi’s race is barely mentioned in the script, and that her Blackness doesn’t overtly play into her narrative, but so often Black women characters are whittled into caricatures where their race is their entire identity. So often race is referenced in ways that don’t feel real or true (especially in films like this one that are written and directed by white men) so it's fine with me that Tashi’s race is not central to the story being told here, and I would argue that her motivations, actions, and relationships are informed by her race.

Yes, Challengers gives a lot of time and attention to its male characters — Art and Patrick are in their own will-they-won’t-they dance, fulfilling their sides of a true love triangle — but it never feels like Tashi is there in service of them, or solely acting as a emotional fluffer to push either of them to a climax. She’s trying to get herself off, unapologetically, and she acts out when they each fail to service her. It’s thrilling to watch Zendaya come into her power as an actor here, acing this character at two very different stages of her life, proving on screen that she can literally move from teen to adult believably, and that at both ages, she’s a force — likable or not.

“When we talk about representation, it's also important to represent all types of people, which means that not everyone is likable at the time, because we're human beings and we deserve to be seen [in] all the varieties of the human experience, which doesn't always look like rainbows and sunshine,” Zendaya said. “Sometimes it's complicated and messy and I think that we never tried to shy away from that with her, nor do we try to apologize for it. I think she just is who she is… She's powerful, she's strong, but she's also incredibly fragile and broken. And I think that that is incredibly important for people to be able to see all versions." 

Zendaya talks about Tashi like she’s someone who needs defending. And that’s how I felt walking out of the theater too. Because, as Zendaya notes, when a Black woman isn't just powerful and strong, but fragile and broken too, that usually comes with an apology, or an overcorrection, or a need to redeem her moral compass. I loved that Tashi is wrong and strong at times, and that her mistakes aren’t caveated by a scolding consequence, a life lesson for the audience. I would also argue that Art and Patrick are just small, insecure men who are repressing their feelings for each other by obsessing over Tashi. Tennis acts as a metaphor for their relationship, and for sex, and since she’s not on the court or in one of their beds (which is dependent on the decade), they take out their toxic masculinity and raging egos on each other (their friendship is also soft and sweet, a nice contrast to the aggression that can come with sport and another one of the movie’s wonderful nuances). Patrick has something to prove and Art has everything to lose. Art may come out looking like the good guy, but really he’s an incel-adjacent sore loser hiding in the body of a tennis heartthrob with a seemingly perfect life. 

In a clip going viral, Tyrone Edwards (reporter for eTalk, a Canadian entertainment TV show, and a good friend of mine), makes Zendaya laugh hysterically when he states that “Tashi Duncan ain’t shit.” The interview then turns into a heated discussion between Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor as they each try to defend their characters. “Once you [watch it again], you let me know who ain’t shit,” Zendaya says as she points to Faist, implying that my assessment of Art is correct. O’Connor explains that it’s Art who puts a wedge between Patrick and Tashi first, effectively causing the fight that leads to her injury. I’ll take it one step further and say that it’s also Art who doesn’t seem to understand who he married. In the present day, when Art sheepishly asks Tashi to tell him she’ll still love him even if he loses to Patrick, it’s proof that he doesn’t understand that his wife could never love someone who has to ask that question. 

Ultimately, Challengers is a crowd-pleasing, campy exploration of the spectacle of sport and the absurdity of love triangles (with GREAT kissing). Its baffling and brilliant score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross makes every scene exhilarating and Kuritzkes’ tight script creates a bold foundation for Guadagnino to play. He’s having so much fun and the film never takes itself too seriously. It’s horny and ridiculous, which is exactly what it should be. All of these elements make Challengers a hit but it’s the trio of performances that elevate it to an instant classic. Faist and O’Connor each make great cases for becoming the next white boys of the season/ Internet Boyfriends of the moment, and Zendaya, who is opening a theatrical release on her name alone as top billing for the first time, proves that she can live up to the hype. 

Zendaya’s detractors may question whether she’s more than just runway looks and red carpet theme dressing (which she's exceptional at), but after this film, it’s undeniable that she’s a bonafide movie star. The definition of that coveted moniker to me is someone who can perfect roles in ways that no one else could. In a lesser star’s hands, the movie doesn’t work. Period. Without Zendaya’s quiet and commanding presence, and her somehow intimidating vulnerability, Tashi really ain’t shit. It’s a testament to her talent that she turned this character into someone worth defending, and someone you root for in spite of yourself. Tashi Duncan may be Challengers’ villain, but Zendaya is its hero.