The cast of Marty Supreme is wonderfully chaotic.
One of Hollywood’s most popular movie stars, Timothée Chalamet, plays the titular role. Queen GOOP herself, Gwyneth Paltrow, plays one of his love interests (?!?!), her first major dramatic movie role in 15 years. And then there’s The Nanny! Fran Drescher plays Marty’s mom, a rare plumb film role for her as well.
But as the just-released trailer for Marty Supreme plays and this Mad Libs smorgasbord of cast members’ title cards flash on the screen, there’s a jump scare: Kevin O’Leary???
O’Leary aka Shark Tank’s “Mr. Wonderful” aka MAGA-tinged cable news talking head is now, apparently, a major movie star. You gotta diversify your portfolio, I guess.
Marty Supreme tracks the rise of a renowned ping-pong athlete (that’s not a joke), desperate to be taken seriously by skeptics as he navigates complicated relationships with the women in his life. The film is being distributed by the industry’s hippest studio, A24, and is directed by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time), hinting at a befuddling cool factor behind the feel-good story.
To the surprise of no one who has watched Shark Tank, O’Leary appears to be playing the curmudgeonly naysayer, who Marty passionately tries to convince to support his dreams of ping-pong super-stardom. To the surprise of everyone who has watched Shark Tank, the famously bald TV personality has hair in the film.
In the trailer, he has fourth billing.
Kevin O’Leary in
In addition to his reign as the Simon Cowell of business TV series, O’Leary has been a regular fixture on cable news throughout the new Trump administration, translating his Shark Tank contrarianism into pro-MAGA talking points.
The reaction that Mr. Wonderful will be appearing in this Oscar-hopeful film has been, as you could imagine, polarized.
O’Leary isn’t losing his acting virginity alone in Marty Supreme. According to Variety, roughly 140 non-actors appear in the film, including magician Penn Gillette and French tightrope walker Philipe Petit.
