Interview: ‘Marty Supreme’ Casting Director Jennifer Venditti on Finding 1950s Faces and the Magic of Collaborating with Josh Safdie
For casting director, Jennifer Venditti, finding the right face is everything. After beginning her career in the fashion world, where she worked with brands like Versace and Yohji Yamamoto, she found herself getting the casting bug on a W Magazine shoot. Collaborating on a story with designers and models gave Venditti a knack for using images to share a greater truth about the people within the images. Her desire to authentically depict people in her storytelling then extended into her first foray into filmmaking, her 2008 documentary Billy the Kid. That passion in photography and documentary filmmaking also connected her to Josh Safdie, another artist who shared her vision for “life as cinema.”
After founding her own casting agency, JV8INC, Venditti served as the casting director on a plethora of American films including American Honey, C’mon C’mon, and Honey Boy. Venditti was also Emmy Nominated for her work on the high school ensemble drama, Euphoria, where her strong instincts for new talent led to the discoveries of Hunter Schafer and Angus Cloud. But her interest in capturing the vast array of people and personalities found in New York City is perhaps best found in her collaborations with the Safdie Brothers. After working closely with the pair across Good Time and Uncut Gems, this year, she supported the pair individually on their solo outings: Benny Safdie’s portrait of Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine and, of course, Josh Safdie’s sprawling ping pong saga, Marty Supreme.
While Marty Supreme spends a considerable portion of the story following Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) on his quest to become the face of ping pong in the United States, the film is a true ensemble piece spanning New York City neighborhoods and various cities around the world. Venditti cast professional actors and non-actors alike to animate Safdie’s vivid vision, incorporating movies stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, musicians and television staples like Tyler, the Creator and Kevin O’Leary, new discoveries like Odessa A’Zion, and some of the most surprising cameos of the year that are best kept a surprise. Throughout our conversation, Venditti’s enthusiasm for finding the right fit for a role was infectious, especially as she discussed her collaborative process with Safdie and the challenges of casting a film set in the past.
Sophia Ciminello: So, you’ve worked with Josh [Safdie] on a few films now. When did you both start talking about Marty Supreme, and where did your process for casting the film begin?
Jennifer Venditti: Oh my gosh, yeah, I’ve known Josh for like eighteen years or something like that, so it’s hard to say where one process starts and the other ends, you know? I think it was like May or June of 2024, and Josh and I both met up because I had made a documentary. We both see life as cinema. We’re obsessed with the cinema of real life, and we both have an insatiable curiosity about people. We both love faces. We love street photography. And Josh and Ronnie [Bronstein] have a deep backstory and research process for their films, so our first meeting, once we get started, is just a full-day debrief of all the reference photos, backstories, and research. And I just feel like an investigator or a journalist in some way. It’s just receiving all of that. If it’s usually dealing with a specific world, I’ll meet the consultants, or I’ll go have an experience within the world. I like to embody it, and I like to learn about it so I can recreate it in a way, because we’re always looking for that magic and that truth. And then it’s just almost like we’re painters with an empty canvas. I have archives of people that I’ve found over the years, whether it’s real people or actors, and we’ll start getting excited and sharing ideas. Like, what about this? What about this? And then once it gets past that, we get into the reality of who can do this and what that process is. It’s just exciting from the jump.
SC: And in working with consultants and thinking about your research process, I imagine that is so different for a film set in the ‘50s and not in a contemporary setting. I was really struck by how so many of these actors almost looked like they were pulled from a ‘50s newspaper. How do you find actors who feel period accurate?
JV: Well, I mean, what you’re saying is so accurate in the sense that faces were so different, and we had to really be aware of that, whether it was teeth or eyebrows or haircuts. Josh didn’t want to use any wigs, and he wanted to be as pure as possible. And the world had a specific look we were going for, too, like Lawrence’s Club felt like the land of misfits. So, it’s like, where could we find faces that felt authentic to that time, but also had stories to them that made sense? Where would they feel comfortable, or where could they go to this place for refuge and to be amongst people like them? It’s the same, you know, with the pool hall, where it has these more rural ‘50s kids who were not living in the city. The hotel is like this flop house type of storied place of older gentlemen. And so for every place, we’d look through the lens of, where are they going to be? What is the world that they exist in? And again, yeah, with no signs of modern facial attributes. That was, I mean…it’s like a dream for me. It’s a dream for me as someone who started in the documentary world. Before that, I was in fashion, and I worked with art photographers all the time. For me, I started off with the face telling a story. Working in photography, the face was everything. We didn’t have the opportunity of people talking. So, this was a dream to be able to bring that and then use my process to figure out who can actually play a speaking role and who has more of what we can give to the background.
SC: That’s so interesting about not just thinking about the period, but how even within that, you have to be so location-specific because we’re in so many different environments in this film.
JV: Oh my god, yeah! And Jack Fisk, wow. Just bow down. He’s an amazing craftsman. And that’s the thing. It was really that each kind of location had a story, and it’s the world within that. It’s such an array of different levels of talent. Whether it’s like, okay, does this person have to play table tennis? Is this person in scenes with someone else who’s this skilled at this particular thing? It’s like that alchemy of all the different types of people.
SC: And I think you do such a great job of introducing familiar faces in new contexts, especially Kevin O’Leary and Tyler, the Creator here. How did you decide on these two for Milton Rockwell and Wally?
JV: Yeah, well, I think Kevin O’Leary is a perfect example of this thing we love, where people think we love non-actors, but we bring them into the fold when their kind of life experience can inform the character and bring it to life in a way where someone without that life experience would be different. And Kevin, I think, is that perfect example. The character he plays on Shark Tank is a modern version of Milton. He’s this very successful businessman who’s kind of ruthless and says it like it is. We could see from his material that he already had it in him. And you know, not everyone can get someone there, and I think that’s where Josh’s magic is and why we work so well together. Sometimes I see the person before and figure out if they can do it, but Kevin wasn’t someone we had the opportunity to audition. So, it really had to come from seeing his body of work, meeting with him, talking with him, and then Josh having the skills he does to make people feel so comfortable on set and guide them in a way. He’s a master coach at that.
And then, Tyler had been someone that Josh had known for a while and had been a big fan of. He always had multiple projects in the back of his head and knew he wanted to use him. And Tyler, being a master artist himself, saw Josh as a great collaborator. And I think he’s joy personified in his real life. And you see in that scene, I think, with him and Timmy in the car of just the energy he brings. He also just has such a cinematic face that felt so appropriate for that period.
SC: Definitely. And then, you also have Odessa A’zion, who is really having a breakout year. How did you know she was your Rachel?
JV: Love her! She was someone I had auditioned a while back and just never forgot. She’s such a unique person and so authentic and true to herself. I’d seen her audition for other things, so I knew that she had a range and a depth to her. She also has this feisty kind of spirit, and she’s really resilient and scrappy. She’s gorgeous and she’s a tomboy. She has so many dualities. She has this tough resilience to her, and she has a vulnerable, open heart. I just find her to be a unicorn of a person, so I’ve always thought about her, but there’s never been anything. Then, when Josh described Rachel to me, she was the first person I thought of. But, you know, as a casting director, there’s a way and a process. You can’t always just put your idea on someone. So, we did go through a process of seeing a lot of people. She was in Budapest filming something. She taped the phone booth scene and she found a phone booth in Budapest and she recruited one of her actors she was working with. She would send me takes and then I would give her notes and she would go back again. She did it several times. And this would be in the middle of the night when she was shooting. So then, finally, I felt like we had the perfect one. I held it back for a little bit, let them see everyone else, and then I sent it. And this has only happened a few times in my career, but in like seconds, everyone was like, “Oh my God. Oh my God.”
SC: Oh, I love that.
JV: Yeah, and then the I Love LA thing is so crazy because it’s at the same time. You can really see the difference.
SC: Right! The locations and the characters she’s playing.
JV: Yeah! They’re extremely different. I’m just so happy for her. I think she’s so special, and it’s crazy because she’s the mirror of Timmy in this.
SC: Very much so.
JV: And you really don’t see that coming. I think people are shocked. She really holds her own, and it’s incredible.
SC: They really play off of each other so well. You have this beautiful book with A24 called “Can I Ask You A Question?” where you talk about your process and how that relies on chance encounters with strangers. Do you have a story you could share from casting Marty Supreme where you maybe interviewed or spoke with someone new and you instantly felt like they were a great fit?
JV: Oh my God, great question. There are too many to just pick one!
SC: I bet!
JV: I will say, well, this is an actor and not a stranger, but Emory Cohen really blew me away. I had my first interview with him and then we did an improv and it took me hours to shake after, because of the depth and intensity. I mean, you can see in the movie that he’s very intense in that way, but it was just…wow. And I felt so honored that he felt so safe and went there in this way. And I was just really moved by his depth and his capacity to be fearless in this way. And so, I cite that, but then there’s Pico Iyer, who plays the Head of the ITTF. He writes these books about happiness and peace. He has a TED Talk about ping pong and what it taught him about life, but he never came in person. We were always just communicating over e-mail. And you know how they say, “Don’t meet your heroes?” I mean, he wasn’t specifically a hero of mine, but I admired him, and the way he communicated was exactly like how he writes his books. He was the most mindful, compassionate person, and just kept saying, “Jennifer, I can only imagine how much you have on your plate?” No one has ever said that. He only has a landline. Every e-mail is like a letter or a poem to you. It’s just like, in the middle of this insane film that was so epic and grand, to have this peaceful guy in there. I was really taken by him, as well. I could go on and on.
And Isaac Mizrahi! One more, Isaac Mizrahi!
SC: Oh, I gasped when I saw him.
JV: Yes! I was always a huge fan of Unzipped, the one-man show he does at The Carlisle. I’m such a fan. I think he’s a national treasure. I think someone needs to make a TV show and bring him back. He’s a magical human being.
SC: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me today, and congratulations on the movie!
JV: Thank you! Take care.
Marty Supreme is currently in limited release and goes wide on December 25.
- Interview: ‘Marty Supreme’ Casting Director Jennifer Venditti on Finding 1950s Faces and the Magic of Collaborating with Josh Safdie - December 22, 2025
- Interview: Cinematographer Łukasz Żal on Creating Death’s Point of View and the Magical Realism of ‘Hamnet’ - December 9, 2025
- ‘Marty Supreme’ Review: It’s One Paddle After Another For Timothée Chalamet in Josh Safdie’s Instant New York Classic [A-] - December 1, 2025
Interview: ‘Marty Supreme’ Casting Director Jennifer Venditti on Finding 1950s Faces and the Magic of Collaborating with Josh Safdie 
AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 321 – Reviewing ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ 
Kansas City Film Critics Circle (KCFCC) Awards: ‘One Battle After Another’ Named Best Film 
Utah Film Critics Association (UFCA) Nominations: ‘One Battle After Another,’ ‘Sinners’ Lead