Timothée Chalamet spent months playing ping pong for new movie role

Timothée Chalamet trained for “months and months” to prepare to play a star ping pong player in an upcoming movie.

• READ MORE: ‘A Complete Unknown’ review: don’t think twice about seeing this brilliant Bob Dylan biopic

The Dune and A Complete Unknown star will play the lead role in Marty Supreme, a new A24 film set to be released in December. It comes from director Josh Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers, known for Uncut Gems and Good Time.

The story is inspired by Marty Reisman, who was known as the “wizard of table tennis” for his professional career that ran from 1947 to 2002. Reisman won 22 ping pong titles and five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships.

The film, which is set in the 1950s, is currently in post-production and its cinematographer Darius Khondji has given Variety an insight into how the project came together.

He said that in preparation for the role, Chalamet trained in table tennis “for months and months” to be as believable as possible. “He wanted to be like a real [professional] ping pong player when he started shooting,” he added. “It is going to be very different than the Timothée Chalamet you’ve seen so far. I don’t think people are going to recognise him at all.”

The film will also feature a number of contemporary stars from the world of ping pong, alongside Chalamet’s co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler, the Creator in his film debut, magician Penn Jillette and Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara.

The first shots of Chalamet in costume emerged in October, which you can see above.

The actor’s dedication to the Marty Supreme role comes as no surprise, given he spent five years gradually becoming Bob Dylan for A Complete Unknown, learning dozens of songs and perfecting his voice and mannerisms. He was nominated for an Oscar for the role, losing out to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist.

In a new interview with NME, Hollywood legend Cate Blanchett – who previously played Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ experimental 2007 biopic I’m Not There – confirmed she saw A Complete Unknown and said of Chalamet: “I thought he was fantastic. I really loved the whole film.”

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