‘Marty Supreme’ Director Josh Safdie Made Timothée Chalamet Wear Strong Prescription Glasses: ‘He Can’t See S—‘ Without Them

In Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” now in theaters, Timothee Chalamet plays an ambitious young man from New York’s Lower East Side convinced that table tennis is the way forward.

The time period is 1952, and Marty is a hustler who works at the family shoe store, pretending not to have a size in stock so he can sell a customer a more expensive pair. On the side, he’s always looking for that next get-rich quick scheme.

The film stars Fran Drescher as Marty’s mother, Tyler, the Creator, Odessa A’zion, “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Safdie spent over six years writing the project. To bring that authenticity to the performance, Safdie didn’t just put Chalamet in prop glasses; he went one step further.

Speaking in front of a packed audience earlier this month at a Hollywood panel, Safdie said, “At the time, we said, we were going to put +10 contact lenses in your eyes, and we’re gonna put -10 prescription lenses in front of them so that when his glasses fall off, he can’t see shit.” When Chalamet tried on that combination, Safdie recalled receiving a call from the actor. “He calls me, and he says, ‘I’ve got the +10s in right now, I’m pretty dizzy.’”

According to Safdie, Chalamet described it as feeling like “he was in a fishbowl.” But Chalamet was determined. Safdie said Chalamet told him, “I’ll do anything you ask me to do.”

Prosthetics artist Michael Fontaine applied pockmarks, freckles and nicks to Chalamet’s face. “You felt that with the scars and nicks, he’s been in fights, and he’s from the street,” Safdie said.

The makeup was so convincing that even co-star Paltrow believed it was real. Paltrow plays faded movie star Kay Stone, who is wooed by Marty. She admitted, “I had no idea.” She went on to say, “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s got little acne scars,’ and was like, ‘I’m so surprised by how you never see that.’”

With Fontaine’s prosthetics and the glasses, and his hair in the 1950s style, Safdie says, “When he had them in, he was Marty.”

Chalamet also strived for authenticity in his performance and spent years preparing for the role. He took every opportunity to play table tennis because he wanted to appear like a professional player when shooting began. He also trained with table tennis expert Diego Schaaf to help coordinate and choreograph the games.

In the film, Marty faces off against Koto Endo, who is played by real-life table tennis champion Koto Kawaguchi. He loses to him during a tournament in London, then finds himself face-to-face with him during a match in Japan.

Asked about playing against Kawaguchi, Chalamet said the pressure was “huge.” But he also needed to get it right and felt “a responsibility to that community and to the aficionados and people that are passionate about that sport.”

Safdie added that during filming, Chalamet “would be so in character, he’s like, ‘I want to win the next points. We have to play.'” Kawaguchi was game. “At one point he said to me, it’s like, you know, I’m not an actor, you know, I’m a table tennis player. And you know, I’m doing a lot of acting right now.”