WATCH: Zendaya Considers What Role Race Factor Plays in ‘Challengers’ Off-Court Romance

Zendaya is a robust presence as Tashi Duncan – her biggest departure yet – in her latest film. Tashi may be very independent with a laser focus, exuding confidence and sexuality, with a bent to be manipulative.

Not only does Zendaya capture this complex balance with expert precision, but she also does so by portraying the character at very different points in her life – from a pre-college teenager to a married mother in her 30s.

“I kept turning the pages,” Zendaya says of the film’s script. “It was like a challenge. The character was incredibly complex, chaotic and difficult.”

The tennis romantic drama directed by Luca Guadagnino and co-produced by Zendaya herself tells the story of the matches played each on and off the court between tennis prodigy turned coach Tashi and childhood friends and tennis partners turned distant enemies. Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor).

Married to Art and currently on a losing streak after achieving greatness because of her training, Tashi’s plans to redeem his profession are thwarted when the couple meets Patrick, Art’s former friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend. As the past and present collide, tensions mount and Tashi must decipher what it can take to win. From 2006 to 2019, we see Tashi in various stages of early maturity as she navigates her profession, family, and sophisticated love life.

“For me, it was just about keeping track of who she was emotionally,” the actress said of taking Tashi from her teens to her 30s. “Who is she, where is she and what is this injury doing to her. When she’s younger, there’s a certain level of carefreeness and joy in her – there’s a spark in her that fades over time and she becomes jaded and desperate to hold on as much as she can to keep her life together.”

Maintaining what Zendaya describes as a “false calm,” Tashi strives to attain goals and take responsibility – a state of being the actress says is all too familiar to many Black women.

The film never directly addresses Tashi’s racial identity, despite depicting a love triangle between a black woman and two white men. However, as Zendaya points out, her Blackness influences several key elements of the story.

“It’s something that’s been done in a sophisticated way,” he tells ESSENCE. “Her connection to tennis and why she is so obsessed with it is due to her access to it. Because he doesn’t come from the identical privileged background as these two boys. Because there may be nothing left to lean on. Because her family couldn’t afford the varsity they went to, and so they didn’t want her to go there anyway.

“There are certain aspects specific to her experience that I think seem very genuine and also inform her relationship with the boys,” Zendaya says. “It may not be the first conversation, but yes [woven] all the time in a very beautiful, nuanced way, because it’s true. This is her reality, her psyche and the reason why she goes through life the way she does.”

is already in cinemas across Poland.