In an interview on The Tonight Show on Wednesday, December 17, the actor spoke in detail about the preparation he undertook for his role in the film, in which he plays Marty Mauser—a character inspired by the life of legendary table tennis champion Marty Reisman in 1940s New York.

The 29-year-old actor said:
“This was a six- to seven-year training process. I met Josh Safdie in 2018 for this film. I don’t mean every single day without a break—it was more intermittent—but it was a lot of training. It started during COVID, and table tennis is an excellent thing.”

He added:
“It’s the gift of my life, an exercise in gratitude. I wake up every morning thinking, ‘Wow, for some reason I get to work,’ so why not give it 10,000 percent?”

Chalamet even went so far as to transport a table tennis table into the desert during the filming of Dune so he could continue practicing, as well as using breaks between takes on the set of Wonka to train.

Later in the interview, referring to the film—set to premiere in the United Kingdom on December 26—he said:
“This is a movie about sacrifice in the pursuit of a dream, and it’s something I deeply relate to. We’re living in a dark time, especially for young people, so this film is an attempt—an antidote to that. It’s about continuing to believe in yourself, dreaming big, chasing your dreams, and not accepting ‘no’ for an answer. I’ve worked on many projects I’m proud of. This one—Marty Supreme—is the one.”

According to the film’s official synopsis, Marty Mauser is a 23-year-old shoe salesman in New York’s Lower East Side in 1952, obsessively pursuing an unlikely ambition: to become the greatest table tennis player in the world.