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"We had an intimacy coordinator which was fantastic and very helpful, because it was important that we felt safe," Zendaya shared.
Zendaya is praising the intimacy coordinator on her new film, Challengers.
During an interview at the film's Rome premiere, Zendaya told The Hollywood Reporter Roma, that having an intimacy coordinator on set made her and her castmates "feel safe."
"We had an intimacy coordinator which was fantastic and very helpful, because it was important that we felt safe," the Euphoria star shared.
Challengers follows the story of tennis hopeful Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), who finds herself at the center of a love triangle with two friends and fellow athletes, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor).
When a serious injury forces Tashi to give up her career, she decides to become Art's coach -- as the pair have since gotten married. After a series of winning matches, she wants to enroll Art in the Challenger Tour, in which she will have to face Patrick, her ex-boyfriend. Tensions soon run high when he finds himself standing across the net from Patrick, his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.
Discussing the sensuality that's present in the work -- we all saw that teaser trailer -- Zendaya, who also served as a producer on the project, said, "I spoke with my colleagues so that we could find a way to feel at ease. We played tennis together, we went out together, we rehearsed together. We got to bond and feel good with each other."
Faist agreed, adding, "We were able to spend time together during rehearsals and beyond, especially with Josh. We were able to get to know each other as people before we could get into the film. We created a real friendship that created the basis of the film."
While the film has had quite the glitzy press tour, there were challenges along the way to get the Luca Guadagnino-directed film made, some of which had to do with Zendaya's Dune 2 shooting schedule.
"We had the script ready that Luca was in love with, but we really had a very short window to shoot with Zendaya, who is also a producer and brought her strong work ethic to the film, but who also had to work on Dune," producer Rachel O'Connor shared while on the carpet.
But it was the "passion" of the artists involved the ultimately made it happen.
"Everyone was completely involved in the project and absolutely wanted it to become a reality," she added, even with a tight schedule.
Challengers hits theaters April 26.
