Timothée Chalamet spent "months and months" training to portray a professional table tennis player in the film Marty Supreme.
Darius Khondji, the film's cinematographer, revealed to Variety that the two-time Oscar-nominated actor went all-in on his preparation for Josh Safdie's sports drama, which is loosely inspired by the life and career of table tennis star Marty Reisman.
The director of photography revealed that the A Complete Unknown star trained "for months and months" because "you can do anything, any camera tricks you want, but you need to have a core."
He added, "He wanted to be like a real (professional) ping pong player when he started shooting."
Khondji noted that Chalamet was surrounded by "some of the greatest real ping pong champions playing today" while filming the movie, which is set to be released in the U.S. on Christmas Day.
Khondji went on to tease the Call Me By Your Name star's performance, revealing that audiences can expect to see a new side of the 29-year-old.
"(He) is going to be very different than the Timothée Chalamet you've seen so far," he shared. "I don't think people are going to recognise him at all... (they) will not recognise the usual romantic."
In addition to professional table tennis players, Chalamet and his co-star Gwyneth Paltrow were also surrounded by "like 140 non-actors", such as director Abel Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette and French highwire artist Philippe Petit, according to Khondji.
The in-demand actor is no stranger to preparation - he previously spent five years training to portray Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, for which he scored a Best Actor Oscar nomination earlier this year.
