Is the 'Challengers' cast actually playing tennis? We asked coach Brad Gilbert

“Tennis players and actors have similar DNA,” Brad Gilbert — former tennis champion, Coco Gauff’s current coach and the man behind Zendaya’s killer moves in “Challengers” — tells TODAY.com.

The Olympic bronze medalist explains that both actors and athletes have an undeniable dedication to their craft and a desire to “get better.” And he should know.

Gilbert has won 20 pro singles titles, coached greats like Andre Agassi and Andy Murray and was in charge of making Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor look like tennis pros, despite their limited knowledge of the sport.

There’s an early scene in “Challengers” when Art (Faist) and Patrick (O’Connor) fawn over Tashi’s (Zendaya) intense and mesmerizing strokes as she beats one of her greatest opponents. As viewers are introduced to the rising star, the two young tennis players are impressed with her powerful plays on — and off — the court.

Tashi and her skills become the object of Art and Patrick’s desires over the course of a decade, creating a twisted love triangle. But the film's intimate, steamy scenes are just as important as each tennis match, especially the one that frames the entire story, in which Art and his coach, Tashi, face Patrick.

Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes said the film was inspired by a 2018 match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka and the controversial call that Williams had received coaching from the stands.

“Then, parallel to that, I became a legitimate tennis fan and began watching what are called ‘Challenger’ events, which are in the lower tier in the world of pro tennis tournaments. I thought it would be an interesting place for two guys who hadn’t seen each other in a long time to meet again," Kuritzkes said in a statement — underscoring the importance of making the tennis scenes look authentic.

Gilbert became involved in the film after his daughter Julian Gilbert (an assistant for producer Amy Pascal at the time), read the script and suggested her father as tennis consultant. His wife, Kim Gilbert, was also hired. Thus began a three-month process of making the "Challengers" cast look like professionals.

While Faist played in high school, Zendaya and O’Connor were new to the game.

“In three months, you can’t go from not having played to being a pro,” Brad Gilbert, 62, says. “But it was all about just trying to do the best we could in a short period of time to make their games believable for the parts.”

Below, Gilbert breaks down the process of training the actors and answers if Zendaya, O’Connor and Faist really played tennis in the film.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You said the characters were already fleshed out by screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, but did you have any say in their tennis styles?

The only one style that really wasn’t written definitely was Zendaya’s, other than she was a good player, one of the top juniors in the world. It was kind of written that Mike’s character was a classic, one-handed backhand, maybe patterned after a (Roger) Federer or a Pete Sampras. Josh’s character had this flashy game. There were things that were written. So, I was working with the context of what the writer wrote.

How long was the process of training the actors?

I worked with Zendaya longer, maybe six weeks before and then we had three months in Boston. We had like six weeks of practice and training while they were doing their lines and getting ready — it was about three months.

We were on the court like five days a week, a couple of hours every day. Mike had to gain a lot of weight from where he was at, and he was on a crazy diet. He had to be eating five, six times a day. They were working out with a trainer twice a day, not to mention they're acting and reading in the afternoon. So they had long days. Then the big thing was learning the movements of their body doubles so they could be in sync, learning their swings and learning their movements.

All three of them (had body doubles), and I spent a lot of time with all three of them as well. My wife consulted with me. Kim found all the body doubles and a lot of the players and worked tirelessly in getting so many people, actual umpires and lines.

Let's break down the strategy for each actor. What were Zendaya and Tashi's biggest challenges and strengths? Did you mirror her skills to anybody in the real world?

We'd already spent about three, four weeks in Malibu and practicing in Beverly Hills. I took her to a college match. First we went to a Pepperdine vs. Arizona State men's match. She was watching and understanding what was happening. When the match was decided, I was like, "OK, let's go," and she wanted to stay.

Then a couple of days later, we went to see Pepperdine women's vs. UCLA women's, which they were both Top 10 in the country, and I think she was fascinated and just watching the dynamics of players competing. From the coaching to everything, you could just see how she was taking everything in.

Kim sent Zendaya a ton of videos of players that she could study, watch or have an idea because she had to be a player and a coach. So she needed two different mentalities.

Me and Zendaya have one slight "seven degrees of separation." We were both born in the same hospital in Oakland, California. I’m obviously a lot older, but we were born in the same hospital. And literally in our early years, we both grew up in the same town.

She’s such a really great person and so dedicated. And now that I’m coaching Coco Gauff, they have very similar mentalities, focused on getting better, and they work hard. (They’re) really hard workers. Sometimes people think things are just given to you. They’re not given to you. They’re earned by hard work.

Did you implement any of your coaching style in there?

She was around me a lot. So I'm sure there was some of that, but also she studied a lot. She had lots of videos and things that she pieced together.

When it came to Patrick, I feel like he was a rough and tougher tennis player.

Let me tell you, (O'Connor's) a cool dude. He’s kind of whimsical. He came every day, early in the morning. He came right from one set in Italy, right to Boston. He hadn’t played and we had to get him up to speed, and then they wanted him to lean down. Besides two hours on the court, he had to go right to the gym. They had long days, but he’s got an unbelievably great attitude.

Josh also had a great bond with his body double. They became really good friends.

When it came to Art, Mike had experience and a bit of an understanding of tennis. Did you have to work through his past style of playing?

From the writer, we had a pretty good understanding of what his game style was supposed to be like: This classic, pretty game. The hardest thing is, he was only one of the three that had played, and he played in high school, but he had a two-handed backhand. So all the sudden, it’s like he had to relearn something else completely. A one-handed backhand is very tricky to learn.

We started working on that, then we had his body double, and it’s learning their style and piecemealing together to have similar strokes. Then go through the paces of copying each other.

I do think it helped all three of them because then that’s where their acting takes over in copying somebody like, “Oh, this is how their swings look like.”

What's the biggest difference between coaching tennis players and actors?

I've coached at the highest level. I've worked with kids, I've worked with some club players, and the biggest thing is it's a different type of getting somebody ready for something.

I would say, most importantly, you're helping somebody get ready. If I'm coaching Coco, we're getting ready for a tournament. We're getting ready for an event, we're peaking for something. So, in this, it was the same kind of thing. We're peaking to get ready to be able to film and do what we need to pull off to do what we're doing.

CORRECTION (May 3, 2024, 3 p.m.): A previous version of this story said Brad Gilbert's daughter Zoe was an assistant for producer Amy Pascal. His daughter Julian Gilbert was Pascal's assistant at the time.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com