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With the success of Marty Supreme, Timothée Chalamet deserves an Oscar
Outrageous promotion, an Oscar-winning actress, Timothée Chalamet’s phenomenal commitment… Director Josh Safdie’s new feature, Marty Supreme, produced by A24, is set to be one of the most explosive cultural hits of 2026. And that is largely thanks to the energetic performance of its lead actor.
By Violaine Schütz.
Published on 13 August 2025. Updated on 16 February 2026.
The wild promotional campaign for Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme will not come out until February 18th, 2026, in France. Yet, all signs point to it being one of the cultural highlights of this year. One of the main reasons is the colossal promotional push made for the new feature directed by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and produced by A24.
First, there is the jacket worn by the table tennis champion embodied by Timothée Chalamet, which has been spotted on several celebrities like Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Kris Jenner, Frank Ocean, Kendall Jenner, and Kid Cudi. It was a sell-out in pop-up stores all around New York, Los Angeles, and London. Originally sold for 250 euros there, the jacket created by Nahmias and A24 is now reaching €2,500 on Vinted and other resale platforms.
Another key element of the campaign? The orange colour. This is the hue of the ping-pong balls Marty Mauser – a character inspired by real-life table tennis star Marty Reisman – asked a friend to design. If Barbie (2023) made pink its signature palette, Marty Supreme has opted for orange as its emblem. Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner notably appeared in matching orange Chrome Hearts outfits on the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere of the film in December 2025.
The Marty Supreme frenzy takes over Paris
Among the many promotional stunts used to promote the biopic, there was the orange airship flying over Los Angeles, the Airbnb experience in New York, a featuring with rapper EsDeeKid, and even a fake Zoom meeting in which Timothée Chalamet pitched farfetched ideas to a marketing team to generate buzz around the project. In addition to that, the actor also appeared at the very top of the Las Vegas Sphere. He is the first person ever to be seen atop the venue, transformed into a giant ping-pong ball for the occasion. Throughout the press tour, men wearing oversized ping-pong balls on their heads followed the star around.
The frenzy even reached Paris in early February with a fiery premiere at the Grand Rex, a pop-up swarmed by fans, and an appearance by the actor at a club with ping-pong tables. In keeping with the excitement, the Parisian cinema L’Arlequin is screening the film on 70mm in February 2026 – the only print available in Europe. The venue will also host special events, including ping-pong tables, a beer pong night, and even a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest…
“People’s attention spans are so short these days… How do you convince them to go to the cinema, rather than wait to stream it illegally?” — Timothée Chalamet
The epic marketing campaign perfectly fits the “Dream Big” mantra of the protagonist in Marty Supreme. The ambitious actor has adopted his character’s over-the-top persona in real life to get people excited about the film. In an interview with Première, he justified the media frenzy as follows: “It’s more than just commitment, really. It’s a way of life. Because that’s what the times demand. People’s attention spans are so short these days… How do you convince them to go to the cinema, to spend money to see a film, rather than wait to stream it illegally, or to be available on Netflix? (…) I have an audience, so I engage with them, and I give it 150%.”
A wild, offbeat feature
But beyond the media hype, is this wild and offbeat film really worth it? This offbeat, zany film follows the turbulent journey of Marty Mauser at a breakneck pace. The character was inspired by Marty Reisman, a real Jewish New York table tennis player coming from a modest family in the 1950s.
This young, megalomaniac player with boundless ambition is ready to do anything to achieve his dream of becoming world champion by defeating his rival at a tournament in Japan. Even if it means mistreating those around him, engaging in petty scams, and proving outright ruthless and disloyal. Josh Safdie – marked by a scandal surrounding an explicit scene filmed during Good Time – masterfully portrays the working-class Jewish community of postwar New York, in the wake of the Holocaust.
One of Timothée Chalamet’s best performances
Aside from its electrifying soundtrack by Daniel Lopatin, the greatest strength of Marty Supreme is its leading actor, Timothée Chalamet, one of Gen Z’s favorite performers, who gives it all in this feature. He embodies with intensity this hyperactive, smooth-talker New York table tennis champion driven by voracious ambition, who abandons his girlfriend and seduces an older actress. According to the actor, his character closely resembles who he used to be as a teenager, when he was desperate to succeed and achieve great things.
Timothée Chalamet is completely transformed and deliberately made less glamorous for this adrenaline-fueled film. The actor delivers one of the standout performances of his career, appearing both irritating and endearing. He devoted himself deeply to this exhilarating portrayal of a 1950s counterculture icon for 6 years, training relentlessly and even traveling with a table during shoots and trips in order to master this sport.
Timothée Chalamet on his way to the Academy Awards
In one scene, in which he is spanked with a ping-pong paddle, Timothée Chalamet even refused to use a body double. Praised by American critics, some even compare his performance to Leonardo DiCaprio‘s one in The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman. The actor could well earn an Oscar for it, and spark a global passion for the sport.
Next to him, Fran Drescher (The Nanny) plays the protagonist’s mother, while rapper and designer Tyler, The Creator draws a remarkable portrait as one of his friends, also a table tennis player. Filmmaker Abel Ferrara embodies a mobster looking for his dog, rising star Odessa A’zion (I Love LA) plays his pregnant girlfriend, and Robert Pattinson even lent his voice to a sports commentator.
A supreme “smash” for Gwyneth Paltrow
The iconic Gwyneth Paltrow, 53, who has already worked with Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, James Gray, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Fincher, is making her comeback in Marty Supreme. In the past few years, her name has been mostly associated with controversial, sex-related Netflix shows, as well as for her beauty and lifestyle empire, Goop.
Her last role dated back to 2019, when she starred in Avengers: Endgame as Pepper Potts. The actress even admitted that she no longer wished to take on leading roles, preferring to devote herself fully to her company. She went so far as to say that only her co-star in the blockbuster, Robert Downey Jr., could have convinced her to return to a film set.
But the star is finally stepping out of her cinematic retirement… and doing so boldly. Here, in a meta twist, she plays a faded diva actress married to a finance mogul who runs a pen company, as she makes her return to the stage. She even dares to take on highly erotic scenes with Timothée Chalamet. In the end, while the gripping, jittery, chaotic and excessive Marty Supreme may lack a few emotional beats and quieter moments, it sweeps us away thanks to its wildly energetic performances and unbridled madness.
Marty Supreme by Josh Safdie, coming out in theatres on February 18th, 2026.
