The real-life figure behind Timothée Chalamet’s ping-pong film: the legendary Marty Reisman, the true Marty Supreme
Born on February 1, 1930, Marty Reisman was undoubtedly one of the most legendary figures in American table tennis history. Growing up during the Great Depression after the Wall Street crash and living in the slums of New York, he understood early on that survival required a skill. Having already dropped out of school, he once slept in parks and lived in basements.
He first encountered table tennis at the age of nine and discovered that the sport brought him a sense of calm. By the age of 13, he had already won the Manhattan junior championship. Who could have imagined that this paddle would go on to shape his entire legendary life?
Marty Reisman began gambling on matches at Lawrence’s Broadway Table Tennis Club in New York. He was skilled at luring challengers into his trap—first deliberately losing the opening games, then suggesting they double the wager, and finally revealing his true ability to win everything back. If the stakes were high enough, he would give his opponents handicaps: using a Coke bottle, a trash-can lid, a shoe, or even his own glasses as a paddle; he would also play while sitting down or blindfolded.
At age 15, during a national tournament in Detroit, he wagered US$500—betting on himself—against someone he mistakenly thought was a bookie, only to discover the man was actually the president of the U.S. Table Tennis Association. He ended up being escorted out by the police. He would sometimes pull out a wad of cash from his pocket and use a hundred-dollar bill to measure the height of the net, turning table tennis into a dreamlike spectacle of a gambler’s showmanship.
Marty Reisman’s competitive record spans more than half a century. From 1946 to 2002, he won a total of 22 major titles. At just 19 years old, he won the men’s singles title at the 1949 U.S. Open, later adding another U.S. Open title and a British Open title. Between 1949 and 1951, Marty Reisman teamed up with Douglas Cartland to perform as opening act guests for the Harlem Globetrotters, touring around the world and delivering comedic table tennis shows using props such as frying pans and shoe soles.
Outside the table, he once claimed that he had smuggled gold across Asia at least 25 times using a specially made vest, earning between US$1,000 and US$2,000 each time. Though the truth is hard to verify, it has already become part of his legend. After his peak, he founded Table Tennis Nation, aiming to bring table tennis back to the streets. In 1997, Marty Reisman, who had always insisted on using the old-style hardbat and firmly opposed sponge paddles, won the U.S. National Hardbat Championship at the age of 67, becoming the oldest player in the history of paddle sports to win a U.S. national open title.
Until 2012, Marty Reisman left this world with a lifetime of legend, at the age of 82. He was never just a player — he was the brightest gambler, trickster, and showman in the history of table tennis, and the one-and-only, everlasting Marty Supreme.
Looking back to December 2023, Timothée Chalamet first revealed in an interview that his next project with Josh Safdie would be an original film centered around table tennis. Marty Supreme is directed independently by Josh Safdie, with the screenplay co-written by Safdie and his longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein.
The story is inspired by the legendary life of American table-tennis icon Marty Reisman, but the production team has repeatedly emphasised that this is not a traditional biopic; it is an original work with strong fictional elements, with Marty Reisman serving only as a starting point. To achieve a vivid retro aesthetic, the film is shot entirely on 35mm film, with top cinematographer Darius Khondji behind the camera, while veteran production designer Jack Fisk is responsible for the set design.
Timothée Chalamet also revealed that Josh Safdie gave him enormous freedom in the action sequences. Another interesting detail: in order to make Timothée Chalamet’s eyes appear smaller on camera, the director had him wear both prescription glasses and contact lenses at the same time, deliberately blurring his vision to achieve the desired performance effect. And to authentically recreate the high-level intensity of professional table tennis, Chalamet underwent months of rigorous training, coached personally by professional trainer Diego Schaaf and former U.S. Olympic player Wei Wang, ensuring every stroke looked truly professional.
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