His first movie script for tennis dramaChallengershas taken him from struggling playwright to in-demand screenwriter.
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Kuritzkes knew the feeling.
At the time, he was a well-regarded playwright who struggled to get anything produced.
Its the humiliation of being a gladiator and nobodys even there to watch you die, he says.
I connected with that deeply as a theater person.
If you asked me if I know the 271st most successful theater actor in America, I probably do.
And I guarantee you theyre broke.
This is also Kuritzkess first screenplay.
In interviews, Song talked at length about how her film was inspired by her own life.
Now Kuritzkes has written a menage a trois of his own.
LikePast Lives,it hinges on a young woman who is forced to confront the romantic road not taken.
Unlike Song, hes not willing to discuss that theme.
Challengersis an intensely personal film to me in ways that Im not interested in talking about, he says.
He dismisses the films similarities.
Love triangles are one of the most basic plots in cinema, he says.
Even in a relationship between two people, theres always a sort of imagined third presence.
I ask what that third presence might be.
Well, for a lot of people, its, like, Jesus, he jokes.
Or its their conception of themselves, or their parents, or their friends.
But in a love triangle, that third presence is not imagined.
Thats just fuel that youre using to propel a vehicle.
To the left, four middle-aged white men play competent doubles.
To the right, two young people struggle just to get the ball over the net.
When Kuritzkes was around that age, he had already quit his tennis lessons.
I could tell exactly how bad I was.
I would have moments where it clicked and then wouldnt be able to replicate it.
That drove me crazy because I was like,Well, why cant I just do that every time?
I decided I was as good as I was ever going to get and it wasnt good enough.
So I was done.
The school had a student playwriting festival, and Kuritzkes became a regular participant, writing 10-to-15-minute plays.
The immediacy of theater was intoxicating, he says.
When he went off to Brown, I already knew I was a playwright, he says.
In his most-watched video, Potion Seller, he plays a knight who keeps begging a merchant for potions.
He met Song the summer after he graduated, in 2012, during a fellowship in Montauk.
Too muchin-yunhas been spilled already.
I point out that Song has spoken freely about their lives together.
I ask if he thinks people do confuse him with the character.
I dont know, he replies, looking me straight in the eye.
InPast Lives,the husband is a gentle presence who recedes into the background.
In real life, Kuritzkes comes off as preternaturally self-assured.
He has had that from a very young age, says theater director Danya Taymor.
He just believes in himself.
Kuritzkes had written it in 2014 after reading about the force-feeding of Guantanamo prisoners on hunger strike.
The production, at the Brooklyn theater Jack, was a surprise hit.
As Adams remembers, We sold out all our shows.
But then its not hard to sell out Jack there are 40 seats.
WritingChallengerswas an exercise in following desire.
The actress wanted both to star and to co-produce.
I think she really connected with that ambition and that pain.
The producers and Zendaya who got Guadagnino onboard.
During breaks, we would sometimes pick up racquets and play.
I have really funny videos on my phone of Luca, says Kuritzkes, smiling.
It was so adorable.
He just couldnt hit the ball to save his life.
Mostly, though, the boys are each others foils, with Patrick always willing to play the heel.
In Guadagninos hands, this inevitably bends erotic.
When the two first become infatuated with Tashi, Art says earnestly that shes a remarkable young woman.
Patrick replies, I know.
Shes a pillar of the community.
He lowers to a whisper: Id let her fuck me with a racquet.
The story of American tennis is Black women for the past however many decades, he says.
I also knew that I didnt want to not specify the races of the characters.
That always feels to me like youre avoiding something.
Now he believes movies are exactly the right place for it.
Whats good for art is the opposite of whats good for life.
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