Linguini and Remy.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images, Walt Disney Co./Everett Collection
Challengers-goers are leaving theaters with an affliction: being unable to talk about anything else but Challengers. The Luca Guadagnino film (perhaps better known by its colloquial name, “hot tennis movie”) stars Zendaya, Broadway baby Mike Faist, and Josh “Watch Emma (2020) You Cowards” O’Connor. The latter, it seems, can relate to the disease currently plaguing most of Twitter, because he suffers from it himself. Not about Challengers, but about the 2007 animated Pixar film (and TikTok musical) Ratatouille.
The film, which follows a foodie rat whose dream of becoming a chef is realized when he learns he can puppeteer the hapless Alfredo Linguini by yanking on his hair while hiding underneath his toque, is not exactly underappreciated. And yet, O’Connor has gone to great pains to praise the film while promoting Challengers. It’s come up so frequently that fans have started casting O’Connor as Linguini in a live-action remake, and if one isn’t already in the works, it should be now.
But O’Connor’s love for Ratatouille is not a bit. He’s been singing its praises since at least 2021 and was being suggested for the role even earlier. Below, every time Josh O’Connor has publicly brought up Ratatouille — whether he was asked or not.
2020: In November 2019, Netflix released a Q&A with Josh O’Connor and Erin Doherty ahead of season three of The Crown. While no mention of Ratatouille is made in this video, a year later, a user comes to the comment section and appears to plant the seed: “Josh could easily play Alfredo Linguini in [a] Ratatouille movie,” they wrote. The comment received over 3,600 likes — one of which, I’m assuming, is from O’Connor.
November 2021: A year later, O’Connor is back on a junket, this time with Odessa Young for Mothering Sunday. “There’s not many films that could get me crying in the same spots,” he says, when asked by Grazia U.K. if he gets emotional during movies. “But there’s a couple, and one of them is” — he pauses, a smile starts to curl, and there’s a slight stutter to his voice that supports that this may be the first time he is publicly voicing this — “Ratatouille … There’s this moment … I can’t even tell you because I’m gonna cry.” He eventually gets it out, and it is, in fact, when the titular ratatouille is made and presented by Remy and his rat pals.
August 17, 2023: We don’t hear much about Ratatouille for some time, but O’Connor is sure to make up for lost time. In the span of 30 days, he publicly praises Ratatouille three times, the first with Vogue. While the film isn’t mentioned in the print interview, it’s the first thing out of his mouth in a TikTok video promoting it. “Something I was surprised to learn about Zendaya is that she loves the film Ratatouille as much as I love the film Ratatouille,” he gushes.
It becomes clear why Ratatouille is about to come up so frequently in this press tour. This same day, the Challengers cast’s interview with Total Film hit newsstands. In it, they describe the “summer camp” feeling of training together. This meant working out in the day and relaxing at night, including “movie nights” (plural) watching Ratatouille. “Some light-heartedness to balance some of the talk and the energy of these characters,” Zendaya told the outlet.
August 22, 2023: Yet again, O’Connor tells VMan that he, Zendaya, and Faist watched Ratatouille together during filming. It comes up while talking about his apartment. “I had the biggest contrast last year. I can’t remember if you saw the apartment I had in Boston — you must have because you came over to watch Ratatouille,” he says to Zendaya. “But I had this insane apartment in the Four Seasons while we were filming, and then a month later, I was in my camper van on the side of a lake in the middle of Italy.”
April 22, 2024: Just because O’Connor has been juggling Challengers press with press for La Chimera doesn’t mean he hasn’t found ways to talk about Ratatouille. In a video for Letterboxd, the actor shares his four favorite films. Just after 1961 Italian drama Accattone comes the 2007 children’s comedy Ratatouille. “I don’t need to say anything about Ratatouille,” he says. “Perfect movie.”
April 26, 2024: The cast sits down with Letterboxd and only discusses Ratatouille throughout the entire five-minute interview that usually consists of multiple movie recommendations. “It’s always nice to just watch Ratatouille, you know what I mean?” Zendaya says.
“That’s the message for everyone,” O’Connor adds.
April 28, 2024: Once more, Letterboxd attempts to get O’Connor to talk about anything other than the animated Pixar film Ratatouille and fails. In a video recently shared on its Instagram from the April 10 Challengers U.K. premiere, Letterboxd asks O’Connor for the last four films he’s seen. “Dune 2, which I loved, and I watched Femme, which I really liked. Actually, I watched Soul, the Pixar movie, which I loved,” he says, getting warmer. “And also, I think I probably did watch Ratatouille again. I love Ratatouille.” Letterboxd, having now been subjected to three straight conversations about this film, finally asks the actor how many times he’s seen it. “Like 100 times,” he says as he starts to turn away from the conversation. He’s got places to be and, more importantly, Ratatouille to watch.
