One of the many contentious issues touched on in David Fincher's Mank is the one concerning the authorship of Citizen Kane. Late in the movie's runtime, the titular Herman "Mank" Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) is visited by Orson Welles (Tom Burke). Welles is there to discuss the script Mank has written for him in just two months — an inordinately brief amount of time to write a movie regardless of the circumstances. At one point in their conversation, Mank lobbies for a writing credit on the script that would become Citizen Kane, something Welles balks at.

Mank's fictionalized version of the conversation between Mank and Welles over who gets the Citizen Kane author credit mirrors the actual point of contention between the real Mankiewicz and Welles. With various rules and regulations around screenwriter credits developing as the film industry has developed, a debate has formed around where the credit lies. Having just gotten through playing Mankiewicz, Oldman offered up his two cents about the debate in a recent interview with Deadline.

Oldman revealed to Deadline first that he had had the privilege of reading Mankiewicz's first draft of Citizen Kane (originally titled The American), which clocked in at a jaw-dropping 325 pages — something Oldman deemed "a little cheeky" considering Mankiewicz was "essentially a script doctor" who was often called in to fix up scripts and add details: "He was someone, if a script wasn’t working, someone at the studio would say, here, throw this over to Mankiewicz and have him put it through his typewriter, see what he can come up with. See if he can give us some snappy lines, we need some funny lines, you know, 'Give it to Herman.'"

Oldman continued by digging into the meat of the Mankiewicz-or-Welles authorship debate, now having read the original draft and played out a fictionalized version of Citizen Kane's production history.

"Let’s put it this way, you know the old thing of Michelangelo saw David in the stone? It’s a little like that. It was in there and Mank delivered this piece of stone that Welles chipped away at. Yes, he did not have a writing credit initially because Welles needed a safety net. He knew that Mank was the guy for the job, but he also knew of Mank’s reputation, and was he going to be the Mank that lived up to the challenge and came through or was he going to be the drunk Mank that could not deliver or just folded up his typewriter and reneged, basically, on the project? So, he needed, and I think initially in the contract, he needed that safety net. Mank did take it, or he presented it to arbitration and then withdrew it, this whole title/credit issue, and as you know, in the end Welles circled his name and drew an arrow. It was Orson Welles, Herman Mankiewicz, and he just circled Mankiewicz’s name and drew an arrow, basically giving him above, top billing, but I think, yeah, it was all there."

So, while Oldman doesn't give a plain and definitive answer, it seems as if he leans toward Mankiewicz in the grand scheme of things. The Oscar winner's answer by no means settles the debate for good, but it's certainly an intriguing assessment of history from someone who has really sunk their teeth into it.

Mank is now available to stream on Netflix. For more, check out our interview with Mank star Amanda Seyfried on the scene she did the most takes on and our review of Fincher's latest movie.