Why Timothée Chalamet was perfect for Marty Supreme

Actor Timothée Chalamet has a restless energy that made him perfect for the part of table tennis player Marty Mauser in the new film, Marty Supreme, the movie's director says.

Set in 1950s New York, Marty Supreme -loosely based on American table tennis player Marty Reisman - is written and directed by Josh Safdie, known for previous films including Daddy Longlegs, Good Time, Uncut Gems.

Alongside Chalamet as the amateur table tennis player dreaming of superstardom are Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher in supporting roles.

Four-time nominee Chalamet won his first Golden Globe award for his performance in the film.

Safdie first met the now 30-year-old Chalamet at a premier, he told RNZ’s On the Air.

“I met this kid and he seemed to be jumping out of his skin. He was present in the room, but he wasn't where he wanted to be at all. And he was Timmy Supreme.

“And he had this energy to him that was palpable.”

When Safdie stumbled on the 1950s table tennis world of “misfits and outcasts", he wrote the character of Marty specifically for Chalamet.

“They were these people who had this supreme vision of themselves. These dreamers who no one believed in their dream. I just thought that his energy aligned really nicely with it, so I wrote the character for him.”

Marty Supreme is the fifth film on which Safdie has collaborated with writer director and actor Ronald Bronstein. It is a professional relationship based on healthy friction, he says.

“He and I can be very, very argumentative, but it's because one of us is bringing a very personal idea to the table.

“And his job and my job is to interrogate that idea to such a degree that you start to hate the idea that you brought to the and they end up defending it. So, the checks and balances are quite cruel.”

He and Bronstein write scripts that feel as if they're unfolding in real time, he says.

"The characters themselves are all chasing control. I think, in particular, with an intense hardcore dreamer, dreamers are trying to control their fate with that intense vision for their future. And control is the antithesis to anxiety.

“And when you don't have it, it puts you in this no man's land, and it's a bit freaky.”

He is a subjective filmmaker, he says, never losing sight of a character's goals and dreams.

“I think that films are one of the greatest agencies for the subjective experience, which is life.

“And if you're able to empathise with somebody who you might disagree with and end up finding yourself subjective in their point of view, that's the definition of what art is supposed to do. It's supposed to broaden the understanding of the human experience.”

Marty Supreme is released in New Zealand cinemas 22 January.