Aahana Swrup
Directed by Josh Safdie, the sports drama film ‘Marty Supreme’ presents a story set in the 1950s, about an ambitious young man who is chasing after excellence. Marty Mauser, a table tennis player who moves around the New York circuit, wants to be the greatest ping-pong player in the world. However, in order to achieve this greatness, he first needs to overcome the numerous challenges life has set up in his way. Fortunately, his bravado, drive, and raw, formidable skill buoy him forward, in and just as easily out of trouble, with one single end-goal in mind. Naturally, given the character’s prodigy-like talent behind the paddle, the film remains ripe with many hard-hitting athletic sequences, showcasing Marty’s prowess at the ping-pong table. Therefore, the role demanded a certain understanding and proficiency in the sport from lead actor Timothée Chalamet.
Timothée Chalamet Trained Seven Years to Step Into the Role of Marty Mauser, the Ping-Pong Prodigy
Over the course of his career, Timothée Chalamet has earned a reputation for his enthusiastic and authentic commitment to every role that he undertakes. His performance as Marty Mauser in ‘Marty Supreme’ is no exception. The actor was approached with the role all the way back in 2018. As a result, he had a good six to seven years to improve his table tennis skills. Reportedly, over the course of this time period, he trained in the sport while filming other projects like ‘The French Dispatch,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Wonka.’ As a result, by 2024, Chalamet had considerable non-professional training under his belt. However, in June of the same year, he began training with Diego Schaaf and Wei Wang. Interestingly enough, the former, who serves as the table tennis instructor for the project, also has a cameo in the film as an umpire in the final match.
Schaaf and Wang, a married couple in real life, run a production company, Alpha Productions, and are known for their table tennis consultancy across various projects. Schaaf’s relationship with the sport started with his childhood in Switzerland, while Wang was qualified for the 1996 US Olympic Table Tennis Team. The couple has worked on a number of notable Hollywood titles, including ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Balls of Fury.’ Since Chalamet was committed to the idea of performing all of Marty’s on-screen table-tennis scenes himself, without the help of a stunt double, his training for the role naturally reflected the same. “He (Timothée Chalamet) was singularly dedicated to getting this to be the same quality as the rest of the movie,” Schaaf told The Hollywood Reporter when talking about the actor’s training process. Unlike recreational table tennis, the professional version of the sport demands a lot more dynamic athleticism, which remains apparent in the on-screen choreography of the matches.
As a result, Chalamet had his work cut out for him. Even so, he dedicated himself to the craft entirely to get an intrinsic understanding of his character’s greatest skill. Additionally, the period setting of the story introduced added challenges to the training process. In an effort to maintain historical accuracy, the choreography of the table tennis matches in the film remained authentic to the professional standards of 1950s ping pong, which differs greatly from its contemporary counterpart. Thus, alongside learning these methods, Chalamet also had to unlearn the more modern techniques that he may have grown used to. Ultimately, although the occasional trick shot had to be fixed in post-production, the actor does all his ping-pong-related stunts and choreography himself. His devotion to developing his table-tennis skills remains apparent in his performance as Marty Mauser.
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