That’s Zendaya’s Assistant Playing an Umpire in Challengers

Challengers, Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis drama, is so focused on the fierce threesome of stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor that once a new character comes into play, it takes a lot to stand out. Thankfully, Darnell Appling, who plays the umpire, hit the serve back hard when he was unexpectedly asked to co-star in the movie alongside his boss, Zendaya (he’s been her longtime assistant). At the Challengers movie premiere in Los Angeles Tuesday night, he said he thought nothing of the camera test and thought of it as a typical favor. “I used to be Zendaya’s stand-in [on K.C. Undercover], and I thought they just needed a body for the camera,” he said. “I came down [from the umpire stand], and Luca said, ‘I feel like you have a strong spirit of truth and justice and was wondering if you could play the umpire.’ I said it was totally up to [Zendaya] who said ‘Absolutely!’ It was all Luca who’d seen my aura and what is surrounding me. It is true! Truth and justice, that’s all me.”

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