The Oscar winner said she only knew Timothée Chalamet as “this kind of cultural phenomenon” before co-starring in Marty Supreme.
Timothée Chalamet appears in first trailer for ‘Marty Supreme’
Timothée Chalamet plays the role of a ruthless, mean ball passionately pursuing table tennis glory in the new movie “Marty Supreme.”
- Gwyneth Paltrow plays her first dramatic role since 2010’s Marty Supreme.
- She plays a fading movie star who has an affair with a man (Timothée Chalamet) who is obsessed with table tennis.
- The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, December 19th, and will be released nationwide on December 25th.
NEW YORK – Gwyneth Paltrow is back where she belongs.
In Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme (opening Dec. 19 in New York and Los Angeles, Christmas Day), the A-lister plays Kay Stone, a fictional, fading movie star, in a high-profile yet heart-wrenching role. Kay Stone feels reinvigorated by a passionate romance with upstart table tennis fanatic Marty Moser (Timothée Chalamet).
This is Paltrow’s first dramatic role since 2010’s Country Strong. In the 15 years since, the Oscar winner has continued to expand her wellness and lifestyle empire, Goop, with small screen appearances on TV comedies Glee and The Politician, as well as playing Pepper Potts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I don’t think I’m disillusioned,” Paltrow, 53, said, sitting with Safdie in the luxurious Central Park townhouse where “Marty” was filmed. “I was very focused on building my business. In my 20s, I was really pushing myself to the point of burnout, and I wasn’t always strategic about my choices. I just thought, ‘I have to say yes and keep going.'”
She briefly took a break from acting in the early 2000s when she had children Apple, 21, and Moses, 19, with ex-husband Chris Martin. And when he returned to Hollywood, he typically only made one movie a year after launching Goop in 2008.
“I buckled down and kept going, and I think part of it was contemplating whether this was something I really wanted to do or if I just wanted to do it,” Paltrow says. “I had to do a lot of calculations: If I wanted to go back, what would the situation be like?”
For a while, she didn’t really look at the scripts that were sent to her. “Sometimes something would come through and I would just say no.”
But when “Marty” came out, “I was at a point where my kids were leaving home, so I was an empty nester, and I was really reevaluating, ‘What’s my purpose? Who am I?”’ Paltrow recalls. “I felt like I was thrown into a tumble dryer. I was really disoriented. At the same time, my brother[director Jake Paltrow]told me about Josh Safdie. I didn’t know who he was. I was embarrassed to say that I was out of the loop.”
Safdie is best known for his nerve-wracking thrillers co-starring Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems) and Robert Pattinson (Good Time). As he says, “For the first few years, I couldn’t even have a conversation with[Paltrow]. I couldn’t send her the script, I couldn’t have any meetings, because you just didn’t do it.”
But Safdie, 41, knew she needed Paltrow to play Kay, who she envisioned as a cross between classic Hollywood stars Grace Kelly and Ruby Keeler. As a teenager, he remembers seeing Paltrow in the films “Great Expectations” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” There, she exuded an aura of “radiant, untouchable greatness” that was perfect for this character.
Eventually, at her brother’s insistence, Paltrow arranged to meet Safdie at her home, and the two hit it off immediately.
“Through a series of events, I came to understand the incredible genius that Josh was,” Paltrow recalls. “It wasn’t until I got through this kind of cultural phenomenon[around him]that I started to understand who Timmy Chalamet was and how talented he was. The script was great and I didn’t have anyone to make dinner for me, so I moved to New York and had the best time making this movie.”
