Josh Safdie on the ambition of ‘Marty Supreme’
The Treatment
KCRW
4.6 • 656 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elvis welcomes director Josh Safdie whose latest project is the ambitious Marty Supreme. The film stars newly minted Golden Globe winner Timothée Chalamet as the hustling, talented table tennis player Marty Mauser. Safdie talks about why he used ‘80s music in a film set in the ‘50s, Chalamet’s crazy year of playing Bob Dylan and the fictional — but inspired by real life character — Marty Mauser back to back, and why he likes to keep the camera loose.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment. |
| 0:11.9 | It's The Treatment. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm Elvis Mitchell. |
| 0:14.4 | My guest director, Josh Seffi, I've known for almost 20 years. |
| 0:19.0 | It's his first film as the director. |
| 0:20.9 | He just told me the backstory for it. The pleasure being robbed, I saw it South by Southwest. But I even know you a little bit, because seeing you around with your shorts and everything. Yeah, I had a lot of shorts. And you were always the allure. Like, oh my God, Elvis Mitchell's here. You had a very low bar in those days. Thank God it's changed. you know what's great about you is you you're there you know what i mean you're there you're |
| 0:40.7 | looking at people and you know what i great about you is you're there. |
| 0:39.6 | You know what I mean? |
| 0:40.2 | You're there. |
| 0:40.5 | You're looking at people in the beginning, and that's special. Well, it's nice to see you be as special as it is now, especially we're here to talk about your new film, Marty Supreme. And it's, for me, falls in this sort of line of films you do about loaners who don't realize that they need people around them. |
| 0:55.3 | Interesting, yeah. |
| 0:56.2 | And there are two scenes that really sort of epitomize that for me in this movie. The first thing is the sex scene, the shoe source. He's really connecting in a way that's not just about the sex. Absolutely. And there's a scene with a taxi driver friend who is played by Tyler the Creator when they jump out of the car and they run. And it's like blissful. And these moments in all of your movies, it's funny just to watch them all back to back to get ready for this. Wow, really? Even in your documentary, it's like the moment with somebody, you realize, oh, this guy desperately needs to connect with other people. Where does that come from? |
| 1:29.5 | Wow, what an amazing question. |
| 1:33.2 | I consider myself a lonely extrovert. |
| 1:36.8 | I didn't really feel like I ever really fit in anywhere, |
| 1:38.7 | so I tried to fit in everywhere in some sense. |
| 1:40.5 | The movie's kind of chasing happiness, |
| 1:43.8 | and I think all the, everything I do I'm chasing happiness. |
| 1:45.0 | I think that time is the enemy. |
| 1:48.0 | And the only moments when time does not exist are moments of love and purity. |
| 1:55.0 | Those two moments you're talking about right there. |
| 1:57.0 | Obviously there's love. |
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