Pico Supreme

Director Josh Safdie has always been known for mixing professional actors with newbies in his films, and his latest is no exception. One of the most unforgettable aspects of Marty Supreme — the feverish ode to ping-pong and perseverance — is the famous faces we notice who are not established thespians. There’s Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, and magician Penn Jillette, among many others. But my jaw was on the floor when I saw the film and recognized renowned writer, travel essayist, and UCSB Art & Lectures’ master conversationalist Pico Iyer.

He plays the head of the International Table Tennis Association — and Timothée Chalamet’s nemesis. He has this stately demeanor in the role that becomes intimidating. He’s simply terrific. When I reached out to him after I had just seen the movie, I was shocked to find out he hadn’t seen it yet, and that he didn’t know how big his role ended up being.

How did you get cast?

As you know, the Safdies are known for imaginative and unorthodox casting, and I think Josh had seen a TED Talk I delivered on ping-pong as a way of understanding life. So, I might have been more of a natural fit for a ping-pong movie than if the film were featuring sumo wrestling or karate.

We met for a long lunch in New York City, and I told Josh that I’d never acted before, and he might be better off casting my much more spirited (and photogenic) wife. At the end of the lunch, he said, “You seem to be a good listener, and that’s what acting is really about.”

It is such a pivotal role. You’re a nemesis to Marty Supreme. Were you given the entire script? Did you understand the arc of the role?

Here, you have a big advantage over me since you’ve seen the film, and I haven’t seen a second of it, not even any rushes. And I was given only the few scenes in which my character had a part. So, I don’t actually have a sense of the larger arc at all — and hadn’t even known ’til now that mine was a pivotal role!

Is your character at heart sympathetic to Marty, although he’s so tough on him?

I don’t think he was. In casting me, Josh said, “You seem to be somebody who’s usually pretty calm. So, I want you to play someone who’s angry all the time. Every single moment!” And that to me seemed the fun, the adventure of it: to play someone who’s unremittingly hostile, as I hope I’m not.

I’m always struck at how sensitive and poetic Daniel Day-Lewis will take on “Bill the Butcher” and impeccable Meryl Streep chooses to play a hopelessly unself-aware and incompetent opera singer. The fascination of acting seems to lie in going where you’d never go otherwise and accessing emotions that might be foreign to you in your everyday life.

Were you familiar with all the tournament and championship rules?

I was, to the point where I almost wish I’d been given a chance to play in a scene or two! I actually learned (from a Chinese master) in Santa Barbara’s Rec Center on Carrillo Street when I was a little boy, and in those days used to compete in tournaments against Glenn Cowan, who made the historic “ping-pong diplomacy” trip to China in 1971 that initiated a historic détente. Then I retired for 30 years, but now I play fairly furious games three times a week with my neighbors here in Japan.

So, I grew up hearing about Marty Reisman, the basis for the lead character in the film, and twice recently, the Brooklyn Book Festival flew me over to New York to participate in their Writers’ Ping-Pong Tournament. Some years ago, I and my arch-rival Geoff Dyer played in front of an audience in a 1,600-seat theater in San Francisco (and to the delight of us both, I lost).

The two of us even brought out a little book on ping-pong, with photos by Alec Soth.

What was your preparation like?

I really didn’t have much of a chance to prepare or rehearse, though I spent a long time learning my lines (alone at home). Our Marty didn’t want to meet me out of character, so the first time we met was on-set, shouting at one another in front of the cameras. And Timothée Chalamet is so gifted at improvising, and offering different lines with each take, that I had to learn to do the same, and throw out all the lines I’d learned to fling out insults and ripostes made up on the spot. After the final “Cut!” he did race across the stage and throw his arms around me, making me realize that I was now the envy of millions of women (and, no doubt, men) across the globe.

What was working with Safdie like?

I instantly liked Josh, and having seen his work with the NBA star Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, I knew he could get remarkable things out of non-actors. And what impressed me as much as anything was how hard he — and everybody else on-set — worked. Even as I was standing out in the Tokyo cold for 10 hours on a winter day, in thin clothing, feeling sorry for myself, he and his entire crew (including our star) were working for 16 hours straight, dressed more flimsily than I was, and never even taking bathroom breaks or stopping for lunch or snacks.

At one point, after a day that had begun for me at noon (and much earlier for everyone else), I said to Josh, at around 4 a.m., “Your films are so full of nervous energy and unsettledness and you seem so calm — even in the midst of chaos.” He smiled — quite calmly — and said he felt like a quarterback who has to get off a throw before being felled by three 300-pound linemen.

I assume it was shot in Japan, where you live?

I was actually involved in several days of shooting around New York City and in Japan. So, I was indeed lucky that the set followed me, as it were, to my adopted home, and I got to experience two very different ways of taking care of actors and managing shoots.

Any stories about the shoot you’d like to share?

As you know, I’m a huge lifelong fan of film; I go to the Telluride Festival every year and was lucky enough to be Guest Director there in 2019. And I knew that playing a small part in this film would allow me to see movies in a different light and from a different angle, as it were.

So, for me, part of the delight of this project was getting to be in the company of giants: not just our director and star, but the elegant and legendary director of photography Darius Khondji, and the genius set designer Jack Fisk, who has been helping to fashion the films I’ve loved for decades from Terrence Malick (not to mention Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon). I got to talk through much of one night with Géza Röhrig, star of Son of Saul and the Jesus in Malick’s next film, The Way of the Wind. And our film’s casting director, the costume designer, the producer, and co-screenwriter were all an absolute delight to hang out with.

I now watch films with much more admiration, aware of how much goes into every tiny detail.

Has this opened up the chance to participate in other film projects?

I’m not sure anyone would ever wish to cast me again — unless Marty Supreme inspires a flurry of spin-offs and directors find themselves in desperate need of an aging, hairless Indian who can hardly move.

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See Pico Iyer in Marty Supreme, opening in theaters on December 25. Iyer’s next appearance in the UCSB Arts & Lectures “Speaking with Pico” series is in conversation with Terry Tempest Williams on May 13, 2026. See bit.ly/48LaPhH.