The life of a Hollywood actor like Timothée Chalamet often looks pretty easy. However, it has to be said that the leading man and others frequently have to do a lot of work before they play certain roles. Sometimes this means hitting the gym really hard to get in particular physical shape. But it can also mean other forms of training, in order to be able to actually do what a character needs to be able to do. In terms of his Marty Supreme prep, Chalamet had to put in some serious work that has me impressed.
Earlier this year, Timothée Chalamet was nominated for an Oscar for his work on A Complete Unknown, in which he played music legend Bob Dylan. Amid the film’s release, it was revealed that Chalamet practiced playing guitar for years ahead of production to be able to do it on screen. Now, he reveals to THR that at the same time, he was also practicing his table tennis skills for the upcoming A24 movie Marty Supreme. Chalamet says…
Everything I was working on, it was this secret: I had a table in London while I was making Wonka. On Dune 2, I had a table in Budapest, Jordan. I had a table in Abu Dhabi. I had a table at the Cannes Film Festival for The French Dispatch. I got myself an Airbnb in a town [around] Saint-Tropez after The French Dispatch, overlooking the water, and I was taking lessons there.
The sports drama sees Chalamet play the titular character, a man with big dreams of elevating himself as well as the sport of table tennis. Marty Supreme‘s trailer shows Chalamet doing a lot of his own table tennis work, and it appears that the movie includes long takes of games that would only have been possible with the actor playing himself.
Chalamet and director Josh Safdie apparently began talking about the project years ago, to the point that Chalamet started taking table tennis lessons as early as 2018. He even replaced his own furniture with a table during the pandemic so that he could keep practicing. I, for one, applaud the Academy Award nominee’s commitment to his craft.
That’s a level of dedication that it’s hard to imagine other actors having. When you consider that Timothée Chalamet was doing much of this while also practicing the guitar, and also making major movies like Wonka and Dune, it’s all quite incredible. And, if anybody has any doubts that this is true, Chalamet swears there is video proof that will be released. He explained…
If anyone thinks this is cap, as the kids say — if anyone thinks this is made up — this is all documented, and it’ll be put out. These were the two spoiled projects where I got years to work on them. This is the truth. I was working on both these things concurrently.
When Timothée Chalamet won the Screen Actors Guild Award for A Complete Unknown, he indicated a real desire to be one of the best actors ever. One certainly cannot deny that he is working as hard as he can to accomplish that goal.
Check out Marty Supreme when it opens in theaters on December 25 (Christmas Day) as part of the 2025 movie schedule.