Gwyneth Paltrow’s casting in Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” was peculiar for a number of reasons. The film, set for December 25 release, features an eclectic cast of actors, but Paltrow’s name sticks out.
I thought Paltrow was all but retired from acting, concentrating most of her energy on Goop. Well, apparently not. Paltrow, whose last non-MCU acting role was in 2015’s “Mortdecai,” has a highly sexual fling with Timothee Chalamet’s character in “Marty Supreme.”
The actress spoke to Vanity Fair as part of a new cover story, and revealed for the first time that she is starring as the wife of a rival professional who falls into bed with Chalamet’s character.
“This woman who is married to someone who is in the Ping-Pong mafia, as it were,” Paltrow explained. “They meet and she’s had a pretty tough life, and I think he breathes life back into her, but it’s kind of transactional for them both.”
According to Paltrow, expect lots of sex in “Marty Supreme,” which is the latest film to tackle an age-gap romance.
I mean, we have a lot of sex in this movie. There’s a lot—a lot.
During the shoot, Paltrow went as far as to brush off the on-set intimacy coordinator, telling her to “step back.” In fact, and despite endless media coverage on this latest phenomenon, Paltrow had no idea ICs even existed until she shot this film:
There’s now something called an intimacy coordinator, which I did not know existed […] I was like, ‘Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on.’ I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but…if someone is like, ‘Okay, and then he’s going to put his hand here,’ I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that.
Paltrow, an Oscar winner for “Shakespeare In Love,” was one of the most sought-after actresses of the ‘90s and ‘00s, her acting credits include films such as “Emma,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and “Two Lovers.”
“Marty Supreme,” produced by A24, will tell the wild story of former Ping Pong champion Marty Reisman. Reisman’s 1974 autobiography will be used as a template for the film. The screenplay was written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. Darius Khondji is the DP.