Marty Supreme effect looks set to bounce table tennis into fashion
The Observer
|January 04, 2026
Players and fans hope the hit film, and the arrival of the world championships in London, will take the sport to another level
When Koto Kawaguchi was offered a part in Marty Supreme, the table tennis player did not even know who Timothée Chalamet was.
The deaf Japanese international, who won a bronze medal at the 2022 Deaflympics, was cast by director Josh Safdie after Toyota, whose team he plays for, sent in his showreel.
Marty Supreme is set to be an awards season favourite, garnering a string of five-star reviews since opening in the US and UK over Christmas. It follows the attempts of Marty Mauser (Chalamet) to become a table tennis champion in the 1950s, inspired by the story of real-life player Marty Reisman.
Kawaguchi plays Mauser's rival, Koto Endo, a character based partially on Hiroji Satoh, who played against Reisman. Kawaguchi is one of a host of non-actors used in the film, his casting emphasising the importance it places on accurately reflecting the table tennis world. Chalamet himself refused a table tennis stunt double and spent seven years training in order to prepare for the film.
The production team approached Table Tennis England when it was looking for extras and ended up casting Joshua Bennett, England's current No 14. He even gave Chalamet some tips during filming.
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