All Your 'Challengers' Questions, Answered by 'Challengers' Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes

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"The blocking of the churros developed over the process of making the movie," he says, about the scene in which we see Patrick feed Art a churro at one point. "The presence of the churros in the scene is certainly amplified by what the actors and what Luca are doing."

Why churros? "It's California," the Golden State-born screenwriter says. "I wouldn't put it past them."

6. Patrick has his Tinder set to men and women—is it because he dates both or because he's looking for a place to sleep? What other apps is Patrick on?

"I think that it's an interesting thing for the audience to mull over," Kuritzkes says, about the first question. "I think it's an intentional ambiguity there of, he needs a place to sleep that night, but also his Tinder settings are set the way they're set. I think the audience should piece that together for themselves and do what they want with it. I don't think Patrick is particularly interested in any of the people he's swiping on."

And what other apps might Patrick be on? "I feel like he probably has a lot of apps for deals or coupons—that kind of stuff," Kuritzkes says. "He has a car, so he's not doing Uber Pools or anything like that, but I bet he has a lot of apps for discount meals." (My own guess: Grindr, and definitely Sniffies.)

7. Does Challengers have a villain?

During the movie's press tour, Zendaya, O'Connor and Faist have gone back and forth on the film's real villain. One theory? It's actually Art since he's arguably the reason for Tashi's injury. As Kuritzkes sees it, though, there's no villain in the story.

"I don't think about characters as being villains," he says. "You're trying to create people that feel real, and what that ends up meaning is that you create people who are as cruel and petty and kind and understanding and generous and mean as the people you meet in real life. One of the things that I find interesting about tennis as a sport—and something that I think resonates in the lives of these characters—is that you're all alone on the court. To some extent, you're responsible for everything that happens to you out there."

He relates that to the difference between tennis and boxing. "In boxing, you're trying to hit each other, and in tennis, you're trying to not hit each other," he says. "You're trying to miss each other. In boxing, if you get injured, it's because somebody punched you in the face. Maybe you can blame yourself. You didn't block it, but somebody is responsible for what happened to you. In tennis, if you get injured, it's almost always because you got tripped, so it's almost always the case that you did it to yourself."

8. How involved was Kuritzkes during shooting?

Often, in moviemaking, the contributions of the primary screenwriter end when production begins—film is a director's medium, after all. According to Kuritzkes though, Guadagnino and his producers insisted that he be part of the whole process. "If anything needed to be reworked, it was going to be me doing it with, in deep conversation with all of the people I was now making this movie with," he says. That allowed Kuritzkes to stay close to Challengers and to have a first hand account of how many decisions were made on set.