Zendaya may not be doing “hard Spider-Man landings” like her boyfriend Tom Holland is, but at the same time, certain physical work in her well-known TV and film projects has caused her to take some beatings of her own. The Emmy Award winner admits that she’s endured some “actual scars” that have come from filming Euphoria and her 2024 movie Challengers.
Movies and television projects that require physical action don’t always leave performers without injuries. Leave it to Zendaya to speak to Capital FM about that as she lifted her right ankle to reveal she got “actual scars” from filming her new sports film Challengers.
This one…It was from the scene where I fall onto the tennis court, and tennis courts hurt! And I was like, 'Why is my sock bloody?' and I was like, 'Oh, yeah, just scraped some of my skin off.'
Oh, that really must have hurt! It was hard enough for me to see Zendaya’s character, Tashi, suffer her career-ruining tennis injury in the Challengers trailer. Now to find out she truly did suffer a slight injury on her ankle filming that scene is unbelievable.
The former Disney Channel star really did work her fingers to the bone playing Tashi. As Zendaya herself is not really an athlete, she had to do a lot of working out for Challengers which the actress dreaded. This involved three months of working on her tennis footwork, form and getting her swing accurate. With the help of a team of people, including her co-stars Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, the No Way Home star was able to get into tennis shape.
Challengers wasn’t the only project that gave Zendaya real scars. She continued to say that one particular maneuver on her popular HBO series Euphoria gave The Greatest Showman actress another scar located on the same leg.
On the back of the same leg - Euphoria. That's breaking down the door.
The scene that Zendaya is mentioning comes from one of Euphoria’s biggest moments of Season 2, when Rue’s relapse is discovered by her mother in the fifth episode, and she then locks herself in her room. Rue kicks and uses full-body force to break open the door. I give her credit she was able to kick through wood like that all by herself without the use of a stunt double. You can watch Capital FM’s interview in its entirety below:
Despite all of the “actual scars” that Zendaya got from shooting Euphoria and Challengers, the Golden Globe winner described her new marks as “comforting.” Just like how people have tattoos to remind them of their experiences, Zendaya can do the same thing with her scars reminding her of her times filming her best projects.
You can watch Zendaya give her best performance yet in Challengers, which is playing in theaters now. You can also watch all two seasons of Euphoria available on your Max subscription.
