“Here,” Faist says, handing me a treat for his dog, Austin. “Now he’ll love you forever.”
Two summers ago, Faist ascended to a level of stardom most young actors would kill to achieve. Playing disillusioned tennis champ Art Donaldson in Challengers, he conjured enough heat with Zendaya and Josh O’Connor to burn through the worst movies-are-dead prognostications. In an era of green-screen epics and ran-through IP, an R-rated drama about adult desire and ruthless ambition became a…

