Marty Supreme true story: How accurate is the ping-pong drama?

Marty Supreme has caused quite a splash since opening in cinemas at the tail end of 2025. Josh Safdie's freneticallypaced ping-pong drama has become its distributor A24's highest-grossing film ever, while also boasting the finest acting of Timothée Chalamet's career – at least if you believe the star himself.

And while Chalamet's grandstanding may have raised some eyebrows, few would argue against the fact that he turns in a pretty stellar performance. In fact, at the time of writing, he's runaway favourite to add a best actor Oscar to his steadily growing list of accolades that already includes a Golden Globe and Critics Choice award.

In the film, Chalamet plays Marty Supreme, a character whose arrogant attitude he admits to have channeled during the press tour.

"This is in the spirit of Marty," he told Indiewire. "And I feel like this is ultimately an original film at a time when original movies aren’t really put out."

He continued: "It’s a movie about the pursuit of a dream. I’m leaving it on the field. Whether it’s the merch or the Zoom or the media appearances, I’m trying to get this out in the biggest way possible. In the spirit of Marty Mauser."

In the movie, which is out still showing in some cinemas, Marty is a New York City shoe salesman who is driven by a massive ambition to become the greatest table tennis player in the world, and he soon ends up going to extreme lengths to rise to the top.

But how does the figure we see in the film compare to the real-life champion ping-pong player Marty Reisman, upon whom the movie is based?

Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Marty Supreme.

Is Marty Supreme based on a true story?

Yes – but only loosely.

Safdie used the life of real table tennis player Marty Reisman as a jumping off point for the script, but never intended the film to be a wholly accurate account of his life.

Marty Supreme true story: How accurate is the film?

As mentioned above, the film follows a character named Marty Mauser, who is loosely based on the real-life champion ping-pong player Marty Reisman – but it is not telling a one-to-one adaptation of his life or career.

Instead, as reported by Deadline, Marty Supreme is "a fictionalised original, rather than a biopic". In other words, this is clearly a dramatised account of Reisman's career.

Interestingly, there is a 2014 documentary about the real Reisman’s life titled Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping-Pong Hustler, whose director Leo Leigh recently explained in an interview with The Smithsonian that Marty Supreme "has its own engine."

He added that "the broad strokes are there, but it has its own agenda and thing going on" while also explaining that Josh Safdie had contacted him to ask some questions about Leigh's own time with Reisman while he was making his documentary.

So while certain aspects of the film do somewhat resemble real events – for example, his match with Koto Endo in London is something of a mirror of his game against Hiroji Satoh at the 1952 World Table Tennis Championships in India – other things are pure invention, such as his relationship with retired actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Fascinatingly, one of the most incredible stories featured in the film – the tale told by Holocaust survivor and Marty's fellow table tennis player Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig) – is based on the true story of a man named Alojzy Ehrlich.

"I learned more about the Holocaust in that little story than from some movies that are only about the Holocaust," Safdie explained in an interview with The Guardian.

Who was the real Marty Supreme?

The real Marty Supreme (or, rather, the real Marty Mauser) was actually called Marty Reisman. Reisman was born in 1930 and died at 82 in 2012. He was a champion table tennis player whose professional career spanned over 50 years.

His career began at the age of just 12, and rumours quickly began to spread about his incredible talent – with comedian Jonathan Katz even once recalling that Reisman once beat him while using the flat end of a chess piece rather than a bat.

Throughout his career, Reisman won five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships – a combination of both singles and doubles medals – while he won a total 22 major table tennis titles including two US Opens and a British Open.

He remained active in the sport long into his life, and was serving as president of Table Tennis Nation at the time of his death.

To put his longevity into perspective: on the film's release date, Timothée Chalamet will be 29 - only half the number of years between Reisman's first and final major table tennis awards, in 1946 and 2002 respectively.

Reisman published a memoir in 1974 titled The Money Player, The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Player and Hustler. And although it's nearly impossible to track down a copy today, it's possible that this served as an inspiration for Marty Supreme.

Marty Supreme is in cinemas now.

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