<\/p>\n
NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2013 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> squints as he gazes out at the Manhattan shoreline. It\u2019s a few hours before the premiere of his new movie, \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d but at this moment, he\u2019s sitting on a quiet bench at the end of a West Side pier.<\/p>\n It\u2019s brisk and there\u2019s snow on the ground, but it\u2019s sunny and Chalamet, dressed warmly in a parka, is enjoying the perspective looking back at the city. For him, it\u2019s like looking back on himself.<\/p>\n \u201cNow in my late 20s, there should be every reason to go, \u2018All right, career\u2019s good. Let me start shilling out,\u2019\u201d says Chalamet, who turns 30 just after Christmas. \u201cBut it\u2019s like I\u2019ve quadrupled down on the original pursuit of my life. I\u2019ve gotten out of the pool and redived from a higher board.\u201d<\/p>\n That high dive is \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d<\/a> Josh Safdie\u2019s hyperkinetic 1950s-set New York tale of a singular striver. Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a Jewish kid working at a shoe store who aspires to be the best table tennis pro in the world. The character is loosely based on a real-life player, Marty Reisman, but the movie is just as much a reflection of Chalamet and Safdie\u2019s own whatever-it-takes ambitions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gift of my life is this work,\u201d Chalamet says while seagulls fly overhead. \u201cYou want to honor it. Not in some Keynesian way \u2014 I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the right economist to cite. Capitalistic is not what I mean. I mean: If you\u2019re not going up, you\u2019re kind of going down. \u2018He not busy being born is busy dying,\u2019 the great Dylan quote. Ooh, is that on the money.\u201d<\/p>\n Since his breakthrough performance in 2017\u2019s \u201cCall Me By Your Name,\u201d<\/a> Chalamet has been on an ever-ascending path that seemed to reach a culmination when he, soon after finishing shooting on \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d declared that he\u2019s \u201cin pursuit of greatness\u201d while accepting the best actor award from the Screen Actors Guild<\/a> for his performance as Bob Dylan in \u201cA Complete Unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n But \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d is yet another new level for Chalamet. His Marty, far from a period-piece study, is a blur of forward motion. (To shoot the film\u2019s sprinting poster, Safdie closed down two blocks, so Chalamet would be up to full speed.) To make his dreams a reality, Marty uses every desperate scheme and every bit of grandiose swagger. He’s a quintessentially American hustler, and it\u2019s probably the defining performance of Chalamet\u2019s young career.<\/a> A year after he came so close, it may win him his first Academy Award.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like a long arc thing for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m chasing a feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking \u2018Marty\u2019 mainstream<\/p>\n \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d which opens wide Thursday, is a big test. A24 spent some $70 million on it, making it one of the indie studio\u2019s biggest budgeted movies ever. To build the hype, Chalamet has unveiled some very Marty-esque stunts, including an 18-minute video of a pseudo-Zoom call about the movie\u2019s marketing. That led to a real orange blimp, emblazoned with \u201cDream Big,\u201d flying over Los Angeles.<\/p>\n When The Associated Press caught up with Safdie at his Chelsea office, he had recently returned from promoting the movie in London, Brazil and Los Angeles. For him, \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d could hardly be more personal. Pingpong paddles filled his office, as did an old piece of awning scrounged from Rodney Dangerfield\u2019s New York comedy club. Safdie once tried to turn pro at table tennis, himself, before moviemaking became his obsession.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad is the ultimate dreamer,\u201d Safdie says. \u201cHe still dreams to this day. When I was a kid, I\u2019d ask him where I came from. And he\u2019d say, \u2018You came from the stars.\u2019 It put this intense feeling inside me that there was huge future ahead of me.\u201d<\/p>\n When Safdie and his brother, Benny, set out to make films, they had a New York hustler mentality. For their second feature, \u201cDaddy Longlegs,\u201d they approached the filmmaker Ronald Bronstein, then working as a projectionist, and told him he had to star in the film. Bronstein wasn’t even an actor. <\/p>\n \u201cI thought: This guy is made out helium and I\u2019ve had my feet stuck in lead for six years,\u201d recalls Bronstein, who co-wrote \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n The hardscrabble life of independent filmmaking made Safdie accustomed to giving everything to get his movies made. To convince a potential financier to pay for the basketball portions of 2019’s \u201cUncut Gems,\u201d<\/a> Safdie, a non-drinker, remembers downing half a dozen whiskies during a meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re in a position where you\u2019re at their beck and call,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ll do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n When Safdie and his brother finished \u201cUncut Gems,\u201d years of pouring everything into Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler\u2019s character in the film) left him feeling purposeless. \u201cYou start to ask yourself: What is the purpose of a dream?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Timmy Supreme\u2019 <\/p>\n Safdie and Chalamet first met back in 2017, at the premiere of \u201cGood Time,\u201d<\/a> just months before the release of \u201cCall Me By Your Name.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about the guy. Some agent told me he was the next big superstar. And you hear that a lot from agents,\u201d says Safdie. \u201cBut you got the sense that he saw it. And he had a vision for it. He had this energy to him. He was Timmy Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n Safdie sent Chalamet a video of table tennis players from 1948 set to Peter Gabriel\u2019s \u201cI Have the Touch.\u201d The suggestion was: This is a period movie told with contemporary topspin. For years, while working on other movie sets, Chalamet built up his table tennis skills. <\/p>\n \u201cJosh wanted me to tap into a period of my life when my audacity was all I had,\u201d Chalamet says. Immediately, he saw himself in Marty. \u201cI was singularly driven starting at 14.\u201d<\/p>\n Safdie and Chalamet are now launching something almost anathema in theaters this holiday season: a wholly original, big-budget, R-rated movie fronted by star power. Signs suggest audiences aren\u2019t just ready, they\u2019re hungry for it. The limited opening of \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d in six cinemas, set per-screen records<\/a>. There were 92 sellouts. <\/p>\n \u201cI said this when I went to (former high school) LaGuardia last year: Don\u2019t act for other actors. Act for real audiences,\u201d Chalamet says. \u201cWhile we were shooting \u2018Dune 3\u2019 over the summer, Denis (Villeneuve) said at some point he realized it was more about pleasing real people. You look at the business structure of the film industry, how it\u2019s been contracting since the \u201980s, it\u2019s ludicrous to be focused on anything but real audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to see more original movies made,\u201d adds Chalamet. \u201cThey\u2019re the most exciting ones to see. Every original film I\u2019ve seen this year, I like it before I even start it. That\u2019s a whole new mentality I\u2019ve had, just feeling like we\u2019re all in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n New York hustle<\/p>\n \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d is also a part of the proud lineage of New York movies, and self-consciously crafted in an American movie tradition. It may feel like a millennial watershed, but its production design is by a legend of an earlier era, Jack Fisk<\/a>. The 74-year-old Bronx filmmaker Abel Ferrara<\/a> appears in it. They’re veterans of a grittier, more handcrafted time stretching back to the 1970s that’s been particularly influential to Safdie. Robert Altman\u2019s 1902-set 1971 film \u201cMcCabe and Mrs. Miller,\u201d he notes, is the exact same time difference between when it takes place and when it was shot as \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe tradition, particularly of New York filmmaking, movies like \u2018French Connection,\u2019 I try to let them seep into me,\u201d Safdie says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m casting Abel Ferrara. I\u2019m trying to at least cultivate those influences.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d is a deeply New York film, and maybe a new classic one, is also a special point of pride for Chalamet, who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. Leaning forward as the afternoon winter light brightens the waterfront, Chalamet remembers he used to play soccer as a kid on this pier.<\/p>\n \u201cJust to be here, back where I\u2019m from. What a dream,\u201d Chalamet says. \u201cI also feel like my artistry has grown, not as a talking point or as hyperbole, but as a humble fact of foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s the kind of thing Marty might say. Indeed, some of Chalamet\u2019s recent declarations have struck some like he\u2019s still in character. Asked whether he\u2019s sincere or engaging in a little Method marketing, Chalamet takes a long pause and smiles. \u201cIt\u2019s both.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wsls.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK \u2013 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet squints as he gazes out at the Manhattan shoreline. It\u2019s a few hours before the premiere of his new movie, \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d but at this moment, he\u2019s sitting on a quiet bench at the end of a West Side pier. It\u2019s brisk and there\u2019s snow on the ground, but it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2210297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[410980,310567,29332,21741,426941,407684,328254,344055,343972,350806,363538,355600,344932,21848,426940,34943],"class_list":["post-2210296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-abel-ferrara","tag-adam-sandler","tag-bob-dylan","tag-entertainment","tag-howard-ratner","tag-jack-fisk","tag-josh-safdie","tag-marty-mauser","tag-marty-reisman","tag-peter-gabriel","tag-robert-altman","tag-rodney-dangerfield","tag-ronald-bronstein","tag-sports","tag-timmy-supreme","tag-timothee-chalamet"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Timothee-Chalamet-wants-to-be-great-\u2018Marty-Supreme-might-get.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2210298,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210296\/revisions\/2210298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2210297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}