MILES PARKS, HOST:
In many ways, "Marty Supreme" is a classic American story.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MARTY SUPREME")
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Marty Mauser) I have a purpose. And if you think that's some sort of blessing, it's not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through, and with that obligation comes sacrifice.
PARKS: A guy comes up from nothing, hustles and schemes his way toward his dreams of fame and fortune - that part you might have heard before, but I bet you haven't seen it in the world of competitive table tennis.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MARTY SUPREME")
CHALAMET: (As Marty Mauser) I know it's hard to believe, but I'm telling you this game, it fills stadiums overseas. And it's only a matter of time before I'm staring at you from the cover of a Wheaties box.
PARKS: That is the world of "Marty Supreme.' The new film stars Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser, who will do whatever it takes to achieve greatness, no matter who gets hurt along the way. The director and co-writer is Josh Safdie, who joins us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
JOSH SAFDIE: Oh, a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
PARKS: I was interested to hear - like, you had all these experiences growing up in Brooklyn playing pingpong with, I imagine, a bunch of colorful characters. There was also a real guy named Marty Reisman, who it seems like the "Marty Supreme" character is kind of loosely based on. How much - I guess, how did this blend come together to build Marty?
SAFDIE: Well, you know, I grew up playing a lot with my dad throughout the boroughs, and that was a foundation for my interest in the sport. And the project kind of came to be in an interesting way because I was chasing a 10-year dream in making "Uncut Gems." And every step of the way, there was either a hurdle or a stopgap or a laugh in my face and very few believers in that project, it took a long time to get Adam Sandler.
And towards the end of the project, my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, saw this book in a thrift store, and it said, "Confessions Of A Table Tennis Champion And Hustler." And then I finished that movie, this 10-year dream, and there was this feeling that I should have felt pure joy and accomplishment and feel the - what people talk about that comes with, quote-unquote, "success" or at least completion. But instead, I had this intense feeling of hollowness and loneliness, that dreams are really for the lonely.
And I realized it was more about the journey. It was the purpose of waking up every morning and knowing, I had to do this. I had to do this. So when I was feeling those feelings and having read that book, which was about a table tennis player who believed in this thing and had a dream that no one respected, it instantly was like, OK, well, this can be - this world can be a great conduit to kind of explore those themes.
PARKS: I don't want to draw too many parallels. I don't want to be simplistic in drawing parallels from "Marty Supreme" to "Uncut Gems." But Marty Mauser and Adam Sandler's character in "Uncut Gems," they leave a little bit of a trail of destruction on the way to their goals or in achieving their ambitions. I feel like there is a similarity there. I wonder about that and if you feel like you're drawn to characters, I guess, who have this sort of reckless abandon.
SAFDIE: Yeah, I mean, the urgency of which Marty believes in his dream, I certainly can relate to. I think the biggest difference between the two of the characters - and I love both of them for different reasons - is that Howard, Sandler's character - he had a disease. He was an addict. He was very self-destructive. I don't believe that Marty is self-destructive. I actually think he's quite romantic, and he's chasing happiness. He's not chasing a hit, like addiction provided. He's chasing happiness. Again, as much as I love Howard in "Uncut Gems," he didn't have those things because betting on a game is different than following a dream.
PARKS: So the movie is set in a post-war Jewish neighborhood in New York, and that history is pretty deeply woven into the story. Obviously, when you started working on it, it was not the current moment, but the rise in antisemitism - it was hard for me not to think about it. And I guess I wondered if you think about that at all and how your art plays into maybe pushing back against some of the hateful ideology out there.
SAFDIE: Yeah, you know, I don't think about that. I think about the character and the situation and the setting, and I work always through that worm's-eye view. Who is this person? What is the world like when they're living in it? He comes from a very provincial place, the Lower East Side, you know, in the mid-20th century, which was, you know, a melting pot but a high concentration of Jewish immigrants. And after the war, the concept of Jewish pride kind of blossoms. And the survival of the Holocaust was, you know, something to kind of be proud of.
You know, there's a great line in the movie where Marty tells - he's hosting a press conference that he's kind of finagled. And he tells somebody - they say to him, you know, he goes, I'm like, Hitler's worst nightmare. And they say, how so? He goes, look at me. I'm on top. I made it. I'm here. And that was a moment where you kind of think about Marty in 1952, a young man, the product of Jewish immigrants in New York City, who feels like the world - there's a new beginning.
PARKS: I want to also ask about making this movie without your brother, right? I mean, you - most people, I think, will think of you guys as the Safdie brothers. And can you tell me a little bit more about, I guess, how you guys came to the decision to work on separate projects?
SAFDIE: You know, it's interesting how beautiful life can be at times in unexpecting ways. I had this film - this character, more or less, Marty Mauser - that I had already kind of - by 2018, I was starting to vicariously experience life through this character, and you write all these ideas. So I was very invested in this person and in this story. And Ronnie and I had already started to write this story, and we had, by 2019, kind of, or 2020, we had the first draft.
And around then is when Dwayne Johnson submitted to us this project that was going to be adapting this incredible documentary that I really loved called "The Smashing Machine." He went off and did that film, and I went off and did this film. And what's great is I got to have this experience where I got to watch his movie, which I loved, and I got to see him express himself through this character, which - and I got to learn about him in a new way. And that was very moving for me, and that was - what's beautiful is I didn't get to have that on "Uncut Gems," for example, 'cause we were in it together.
PARKS: Yeah, that makes sense. Josh Safdie is the director and co-director of "Marty Supreme." It's in theaters Christmas Day. This has been a blast. Thank you so much.
SAFDIE: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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