What’s up with the ‘Marty Supreme’ cast?
Marty Supreme is A24’s most expensive film to date, but the $70million budget hasn’t been splashed on a load of Hollywood acting icons.
While man of the moment Timothée Chalamet will be leading the movie as the ping-pong player Marty Mauser – and established actors like Gwyneth Paltrow and Fran Drescher will also star – Josh Safdie’s film is set to feature some rather unexpected names.
Tyler Okonma, better known as rapper Tyler, The Creator, will be performing in his first proper film role, although he has acted a few times in the past, mainly as a voice actor on various animated television shows. This will be new ground for Okonma, but as far as his casting goes, compared to some of Safdie’s other choices, his place in the movie doesn’t seem that unusual.
On the other hand, the decision to cast Kevin O’Leary, the businessman and Shark Tank/Dragon’s Den star, in an antagonistic role is undoubtedly bizarre. That’s like casting Duncan Bannatyne or Deborah Meaden. Despite the fact that O’Leary hasn’t acted before, Safdie clearly sees something in him that will surely be revealed in Marty Supreme. Perhaps he actually has an incredible knack for performance that only someone like Safdie, who is clearly willing to take a gamble, has the ability to extract.
According to an interview with TMZ Live, this special something might not be something he has to try very hard to emulate as his character. “When Josh and Ronnie [Bronstein], the writer, came to me with this, and they’re huge Shark Tank fans, and this story is really about the American Dream anyways, that’s really what Timmy’s doing in this, they said, ‘We’re looking for a real asshole, and you’re it.’”
Why Josh Safdie cast Kevin O’Leary in Marty Supreme
Alongside O’Leary is Penn Jillette, better known as one-half of the magic act Penn and Teller. Jillette has acted before, but his roles have often been small or tied to his career as a magician. Here, however, Jillette will be taking on a part in a film far more respectable than some of his past projects, like Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No or Director’s Cut. Why has Safdie picked Jillette instead of a reliably well-known actor?
Similarly, another celebrity well-known for their stunts rather than acting skills, Philippe Petit, has been cast. Best known for his high-wire acts, which have seen him walk between the Twin Towers and the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Petit’s casting feels incredibly random. While he doesn’t have much acting experience, perhaps his skills as a performance artist, like Jillette’s magic skills, will take on meaning in Marty Supreme.
Director Abel Ferrara, who has helmed projects like The Driller Killer, Ms .45, and King of New York, will also be making an appearance. The filmmaker has starred in various movies before, but you still can’t help but wonder why Safdie has picked an array of people better known for skills outside of acting to appear in the sports drama.
Are Safdie’s bizarre casting choices just a ploy to get people talking? Or are his ideas a work of genius that’ll become clearer with the release of the movie? With Chalamet and Paltrow – two highly acclaimed actors – appearing in the film, there’s a chance that the performances from people like O’Leary and Okonma will stick out like a sore thumb, but Safdie seems to know what he’s doing. After all, look at Uncut Gems. Who would’ve thought a movie starring a cast as bizarre as Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, LaKeith Stanfield, Idina Menzel, Wayne Diamond, and The Weeknd would’ve been as successful as it was?
With a capable director, you clearly don’t need a star-studded cast to make a film work. Sometimes, those without considerable amounts of acting experience are the best-suited stars for a movie, and clearly, people like Jillette and Petit have been cast for a reason. Perhaps the presence of a cast that few people would string together will give Marty Supreme the subversive edge it needs to succeed, but we’ll have to wait for its Christmas Day release date to find out.
