Timothée Chalamet has claimed that a background actor threatened him during the production of his latest movie, Marty Supreme.
In a recent Q&A with Robert Downey Jr. at the DGA Theater in New York City (via People), Chalamet spoke about an experience on set of the Josh Safdie-directed film that left him feeling rattled.
"I won’t say who, but in that motel sequence, there are a lot of non-actors… that I find it really to work with, but sometimes it would take multiple takes to really get something out of them," he explained. "And I’m really getting in the guy’s face, and I’m really trying to get him angry with me. I was saying to Josh, 'He’s not getting angry with me, he’s not getting angry with me.'"
Between takes, the background actor allegedly turned to Chalamet and issued a stern warning. "I did another take, and the guy said, 'I was just in jail for 30 years, you really don’t want to fuck with me, you don’t want to see me angry,'" Chalamet claimed, with a nervous laugh. "I said to Josh, 'Holy shit, who do you have me opposite, man?'"
Josh Safdie, who previously made films with his actor-filmmaker brother Benny Safdie, is known for casting non-actors in his projects. Whether it’s a background actor or a supporting role, Safdie loves to get great performances out of people who otherwise haven’t acted before. Marty Supreme notably features Shark Tank businessman Kevin O’Leary in a supporting role, and deaf table tennis player Koto Kawaguchi.
The movie also features an electric supporting performance from Tyler, the Creator, who has acted in various projects before but made his feature film acting debut in the ping-pong epic.
In an interview with Complex, casting director Jennifer Venditti explained that the team behind the movie wasn’t just casting non-actors to "be cool or do something different," but to "serve a purpose."
"We're approaching every project, like it is a documentary in a way of like, ooh, is there someone's life experience that can lend to this character more than just the written word on the page? So, like, Kevin O'Leary would be an example of that," Venditti said. "We're not looking for people to be shapeshifters. We're looking for people to bring themselves into a heightened reality."