If, like me, you turn into the Leo pointing meme from Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood whenever an unexpected (yet somehow familiar) face appears on screen, you probably had a field day watching Marty Supreme. Josh Safdie’s awesome new movie—which stars Timothee Chalamet as real-life 1950s table tennis pro, Marty Mauser—is packed to the brim with unexpected cameos from the world of film, TV, sports and YouTube.
This is Safdie’s first outing since parting ways with his brother Benny, his co-writer and co-director on a run of great films that culminated with 2019’s Uncut Gems—another movie that filled its cast with interesting faces, though aside from the NBA star Kevin Garnett and character actors like Eric Begosian, there’s a good chance you probably hadn’t seen them before.
Many of the cameos in Marty, however, are famous in their own unique ways. Read on to find out where you might know those faces from, and use the guide below to discover some of their work on services like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
11. George Gervin, Kemba Walker and Tracey McGrady
Having made one of the most original basketball movies of all time in Uncut Gems—drawing a memorable performance from Kevin Garnett along the way—it’s no surprise that Safdie was able to convince a few NBA legends to appear in his latest sports movie.
Kemba Walker, a four-time NBA all-star turned coach, and Tracey McGrady, a retired seven-timer, both appear as Harlem Globetrotters during the European tour, where Marty and Kletzki are providing the halftime entertainment. Meanwhile, George Gervin, a nine-time all-star and bona fide legend, plays the manager of the table tennis club where Ted Williams also appears. Make sure you go see it, and keep those eyes peeled if you do!
10. Izaac Mizrahi as Merle
In terms of cameos in Marty Supreme, my personal favourite was someone I’d honestly never heard of before: Izaac Mizrahi. The well-known fashion designer just kills for every second he appears on screen as Merle, the publicist to Paltrow’s golden age star, including absolutely stealing the scene when Marty comes to visit her dressing room late on.
Mizrahi is a popular personality in the fashion world, having appeared as a judge on shows like Project Runway and RuPaul’s Drag Race and as himself in episodes of Sex and the City and Gossip Girl. Acting-wise, he apparently had a tiny role in Men in Black, but Marty is surely his best to date.
9. Penn Jilette as Hoff
If you need a guy to play a cantankerous and potentially dangerous farmer who abducts a dog, why not ask one of the most famous magicians in history? Penn Jillette is best known as the more talkative half of Penn & Teller, a duo who rose to worldwide stardom after successfully making the move from Vegas act to television fame in the 1980s.
Though he’s appeared as himself in various movies and TV shows, Jilette has also acted in a few scripted roles over the years—including a part in Hackers and opposite Uncut Gems star Adam Sandler in the 2017 comedy Sandy Wexler.
8. Luke Manley as Dion Galanis
You probably need to have been following the NBA in 2021 to know who Luke Manley is. The first time actor, who plays Marty’s larger than life business manager Dion Galanis, gained notoriety that year after a NSFW video he appeared in (outside Madison Square Garden after a New York Knicks game) went viral, prompting appearances on popular social media pages like New York Nico and Barstool Sports.
Safdie discovered him with the help of his casting director, Jennifer Venditti, and is said to have written the role with him in mind.
7. Philippe Petit as the Brussels MC
Even keener-eyed viewers might have clocked the MC at the tournament in Brussels to be none other than Philippe Petit. The French high-wire artist became something of a living legend in 1974 after walking (without a safety rope or permission) between the two towers of the World Trade Centre on a tightrope. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance, but one that rhymes perfectly with the movie’s “Dream Big” ethos.
In 2008, Petit’s fame was given another boost with the release of the Academy Award-winning documentary, Man of Wire. Robert Zemeckis then adapted that story into his 2015 immersive film, The Walk, in which Joseph Gordon Levitt played Petit. So, if you’re looking to learn more about him, both are well worth checking out.
6. David Mamet and Fred Hechinger as Glenn Nordmann and Troy
If you need someone to play a macho playwright in your movie, why not just hire a macho playwright? Nobody ticks those two boxes like David Mamet. The Broadway legend appears in Marty Supreme as Glenn Nordman, the director of Kay Stone’s—the Gwyneth Paltrow character’s—play. Cinema fans will know Mamet as the writer behind movies like The Untouchables, Ronin and Glengarry Glen Ross—the latter of which was adapted from his own play.
Keen-eyed viewers might also have spotted Fred Hechinger playing Stone’s Brando-like co-star in the play—a relatively famous face that Safdie never quite gets close enough for you to recognise. Hechinger shot to fame for playing Quinn in Season 1 of The White Lotus and has since appeared in movies like Gladiator 2 and Thelma.
5. Fran Drescher as Rebecca Mauser
Viewers on this side of the Atlantic probably still know Fran Drescher for playing Fran Fine on the long-running ‘90s sitcom, The Nanny and for playing Connie in Saturday Night Fever. In Hollywood, the actress is probably best known these days for being the leader of the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, and for essentially being the face of the actors’ strike in 2023.
In Safdie’s film, she gives a delightful performance as Marty’s long-suffering mother, Rebecca.
4. Ted Williams as Ted
If you were vertical and conscious for the early years of YouTube, you might have done a double-take when Ted Williams’ face appeared in Marty Supreme. The so-called “Man With The Golden Voice” is probably better known to American audiences for his continued work as a sports announcer. However, even UK viewers should recognise him from an uber-viral video that began to circulate in 2011.
If you haven’t seen it, the video shows a then-homeless Williams impressing a passing driver with his radio-perfect voice. Williams had been a fixture on the radio in the ‘80s before losing it all to addiction, but the video helped to get him back on his feet. In Marty, Williams plays Ted, an employee at the club where Marty practices and gets to share a couple of memorable moments with Chalamet.
3. Géza Röhrig as Bela Kletzki
If something seemed familiar about Marty’s competitor-turned-friend, Bela Kletzki, it’s probably because the actor who played him, Géza Röhrig, has played a similar role before. Röhrig’s face will certainly be known to anyone who saw the powerful 2014 film Son of Saul, as the actor is basically shown in close-up for much of that relentless film’s running time.
Of course, that Auschwitz-based film features no table tennis, but Safdie was still shrewd to cast him as a character based on Alojzy Ehrlich, a table tennis pro who really did survive the Nazi death camp. In Marty, Röhrig’s Kletzki recounts an astonishing story involving honey bees that is apparently taken from Ehrlich’s memoir—it’s also probably the best scene in the movie.
2. Abel Ferrara as Ezra Mishkin
The film’s other main bad guy, Ezra Mishkin, is played by one of modern cinema’s great bad boys, Abel Ferrara—a filmmaker who started in the porn industry before moving into feature filmmaking with provocative gems like The Driller Killer and Bad Lieutenant.
Safdie actually cast the director in Daddy Longlegs, one of his earliest films, when Ferrara was still struggling with alcohol addiction. Since moving to Rome in the early ‘00s, however, the director has gone sober and has since become a kind of mascot and godfather to the thriving New York independent film scene. As Mishkin, he gets to bare his teeth and, more often than not, steal the show.
1. Kevin O’Leary as Milton Rockwell
Given his fame and how much screentime he has as Marty’s best pal, Wally, I felt there wasn’t any need to add Tyler “The Creator” Okonma to this list. That said, Kevin O’Leary probably has even more lines than Okonma, yet his role feels more like the kind of stunt casting the Safdies are known for—especially from the POV of UK and European viewers.
If you don’t know him, O’Leary is a hugely successful businessman who is famous in America for being the most charismatic judge on Shark Tank—basically the US version of Dragon’s Den—where he’s earned the nickname “Mr Wonderful”. In Marty Supreme, he plays the film’s main antagonist (a pen magnate named Milton Rockwell) with oily charm—he even gets to spank the world’s most famous actor with a paddle.
