Interview: Production Designer Jack Fisk on Recreating 1950s New York and Building a Ping Pong Playground in ‘Marty Supreme’
When I spoke to production designer Jack Fisk in 2023 about his work on Martin Scorsese’s late-career masterpiece, Killers of the Flower Moon, he talked extensively about his passion for research and providing a window for audiences to witness new periods in American history. His creativity and sharp attention to detail have given filmgoers a tactile view into the start of Jamestown in The New World, a cautionary tale of greed at the turn-of-the-century in There Will Be Blood, and the attitudes of post-World War II America in The Master. In addition to recreating textured period detail, Fisk designs habitats for characters that make their lives feel even more authentic. It’s that confluence of rich historic elements and focus on creating realistic environments for the actors that make his work in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme such an exciting new project for the production designer.
Set in 1952 in New York City, Marty Supreme follows ping pong prodigy Marty Mauser as he tries to hustle his way out of the Lower East Side to become the new face of the sport for the United States. The kinetic energy and chaos of Marty’s story finds Fisk creating everything from built-to-scale tenement apartments, a gorgeous Upper East Side residence, and period accurate exteriors of Orchard Street. At its core, Marty Supreme is a New York story, but because the protagonist is determined to be recognized as a champion on a global stage, Fisk’s work also stretches to environments set in London, Cairo, and Tokyo. It’s a towering achievement in his already remarkable career and further evidence that as a production designer, Jack Fisk continues to reign supreme.
Sophia Ciminello: When I first saw the movie, your sets made me feel like I was watching a documentary, because everything felt so real and lived-in. Where did your process begin once you read the script?
Jack Fisk: Thank you! Well, it actually began with documentaries. I looked at a lot of street photographers who were working in New York. Josh and I used documentaries for research more than films because, you know, it seems to lose something if somebody designs it. But I like documentaries because they’re real. And I always think with period films, I’d like to make them look more like documentaries and not costume dramas.
SC: Right, or to look like what they think a period film would feel like.
JF: Yeah, and to really feel the place. In my career, luckily, I’ve been able to do a lot of period films, and research has become a big part of it. Josh had found a documentary at the Museum of Modern Art that was made in 1950 on Orchard Street. It was in color, and it was an amazing document. We all started with that for the costumes and props and set dressing, and that probably more than anything guided us, at least to the Orchard Street locations and how to handle them. Things have changed so much on Orchard Street. First, there’s graffiti everywhere, which wasn’t there in the ‘50s, and the storefronts have all been modernized in big plate glass. The location that we chose to dress for the shoot at the shoe store was right next to a brand new hotel, so we had to cover the front of that. Looking at all of the research of Orchard Street, we also got the idea of building modulars of storefronts, so we could build them in a shop in Brooklyn and then bring them over on a truck or a trailer and then set them up on the sidewalk. So we were able to cover the hotel and many other offensive structures–offensive in that they didn’t match our period with these modular setpieces.
And then Adam Willis, our set decorator, decorated the windows of these pieces we made, and then we put out tables with clothing and stuff on the sidewalk, and then period cars and people. It really obliterated all of the wrong period details of today’s Orchard Street. But the essence of Orchard Street was there from the beginning. It just emanated from the streets. And Josh and I both wanted to shoot on the Lower East Side. I know it’s hard for production to shoot there because there are so many people and businesses to deal with, but it was so much fun. And thank goodness they let us shoot there, and we were able to kind of get the essence of the place.
SC: Parts of the city really do feel so distinctive. And am I right in thinking this is your first New York movie?
JF: You know, it is. I did come on in 1974 with Brian DePalma to shoot part of Phantom of the Paradise, and we came up here to shoot the exterior of a theater. And then, we were looking for a prison to shoot in, so I went to New York prisons and they all seemed too nice. People were watching television and they were wearing the orange jumpsuits. It was much too pleasant for our film. But we were storing our props and set dressing at the Pressman Toy Company because Ed Pressman was a producer on the film. And I’ll tell you, I’d go to this toy company in Brooklyn and it was the most depressing place I’ve ever been (laughs). So we made The Pressman Toy Company the prison! Instead of making license plates, they were making Tiddly Winks. But that was the only other time I’ve shot in New York.
SC: (Laughs) Oh, that’s great. And the world that you create for Marty really works because you can feel how he’s chasing his dream, but also that he feels so stifled in these tight spaces, like the tenement apartment or the shoe store. How did you create these spaces?
JF: Well, we built the interiors of the tenement building on a stage, and we kept them down to the real size. At one point, I remember Josh was like, “We should make this a little bigger so we can shoot,” but he changed his tune. Suddenly, I would show him stuff that was bigger, and he’d go, “Oh, that’s not going to work,” so we went down to the regular size. We were shooting in the pet store, which was only 12 feet wide. It was extremely narrow. He really embraced all of the limitations because he loves New York so much and wanted it to be real. So, we pretty much kept to the scale of the real town. The problem with tenement buildings today is that they’ve made them put steel doors in for fire safety, and they’ve added more windows. They’ve also taken away some fire escapes now, so we were hanging fire escapes on the outside of the sets. We were putting in the old wooden doors and taking it back to the time, which was exciting for me. In the Sixties, I was going to school at Cooper Union and I lived on 9th Street in a tenement building. So, I had that experience of walking up six flights of stairs, through narrow hallways, and hearing neighbors all around me. So, it was personally really fun to recreate the period.
SC: Oh, I bet. There’s also such a contrast between those spaces and the Rockwell apartment on the Upper East Side. What was your process for scouting that location?
JF: You know, we started with the script because they’d put that address in the script on Fifth Avenue, but they didn’t really know the building there. But then I researched and there was a building built there in 1949, a very modern building of condominiums, which I loved. But there was an architect who had an original apartment there, and when I was at Cooper Union, I studied with his father.
SC: Wow!
JF: Yeah, and so, I thought, well, maybe we can get in that way (laughs). But, you know, the problem with apartment buildings like that is that you have to get everyone to approve. You know, you have the neighbors who don’t want a film company coming in that makes a lot of noise or blocks doorways. So we kept looking and we found a place that was available that was a Woolworth House built by the five-and-dime Woolworth. He built three houses for his three daughters on 80th Street, but they’re immaculate and right by the Met. And the one we found was all furnished, and it was beautifully maintained, and they would let us shoot there. They were used to people coming in and it was, like you said, such a contrast from the Lower East Side. It was like night and day. And it kind of worked with the film, because it was so real. Our set decorators had to change out a few paintings and stuff that we couldn’t get rights to or that were too valuable, but there’s so much that was given to us by that beautiful building.
SC: And when we spoke about Killers of the Flower Moon a few years ago, I remember talking about how you design multipurpose spaces. And here, we have that bowling alley that also has a series of ping pong tables. Was that based on anything that you discovered in your research?
JF: That was really from Josh. You know, he wanted to go somewhere interesting, and at that time, there weren’t ping pong tables around. There weren’t ping pong parlors in too many places. New York was lucky to have a few, but he got the idea of putting it in a bowling alley because bowling was such a big part of the period. So, we had to look for a bowling alley not only one that was right for the period, but also one that had room for ping pong tables. And even on that one, when we got it, we had to extend the floor out toward the bowling alley because there wasn’t enough room to put ping pong tables in it. And I said, “Okay, so you want a ping pong table?” And he said, “No, I want six ping pong tables.” That’s the way Josh works. He always wants more, and I never want to say no, so I think we ended up with six ping pong tables in there. I told him when I saw him last night, I said, “Josh, I only saw one ping pong table.” He said, “No, there were a lot of them! I saw them.” (Laughs). I love Josh and his passion for New York. He was so excited about the period on this, too.
So, we found an old bowling alley in Hancock, New York, that opened in the late forties, but automatic pin setting didn’t start until it was invented in 1954. So everything was handmade, and this had an automatic pin setting, but it was probably the earliest one when you go back and see the guts of it. But we didn’t show that it was automatic. We took away a lot of the telltale evidence of it being automatic and repainted the building, and simplified it. There was a lot of stuff that had been added over the last 75 years, and we were able to strip a lot of that out. We also did the outside, which never got filmed. Sometimes things get filmed and don’t end up in the film, but this was never even filmed because we were only scheduled to shoot there one day and we just couldn’t do everything. It was a pretty involved scene. But we also built a gas station nearby for the scene where he goes there. We did that so we could have one day where we could shoot the pool hall and the next day, we could shoot the gas station, and that worked out well.
SC: These table tennis sequences are pretty incredible and you’re going all over the world for them. How did you approach the tournament in London, where you have a series of tables and stands?
JF: You know, we shot that at the Meadowlands, and it’s in New Jersey next to the American Dream Mall. The only problem we had there was that the floor was concrete, and Josh said, “It’s got to be wood.” So we put in a wood floor. And then we had to figure out a way to light it. You know, Darius Khondji, the cinematographer, and Richie, the key grip, figured out a rigging system. I have some pictures of it. It’s so huge because it’s as big as an ice skating rink or a hockey rink, and we had to raise that up before we could start putting in the floor. I think we had five days total to do that, plus the floor, and then the set dressing. And we did quite a bit of painting to bring it more towards England. But in this film, we were moving so fast that it made it fun. I think it sort of reflected Marty’s fast journey.
SC: I think so, too. Well, Jack, thank you so much for speaking with me again, and congratulations on the film.
JF: Thank you. It was so fun to do, and I can’t wait to talk to you again for the next one.
SC: Yes! We’ll talk again then for sure.
Marty Supreme is currently in limited release from A24 and will go wide on December 25.
- Interview: Production Designer Jack Fisk on Recreating 1950s New York and Building a Ping Pong Playground in ‘Marty Supreme’ - December 23, 2025
- Interview: Cinematographer Darius Khondji on Shooting on Film and Finding the Light and the Darkness of ‘Marty Supreme’ - December 23, 2025
- Interview: ‘Marty Supreme’ Casting Director Jennifer Venditti on Finding 1950s Faces and the Magic of Collaborating with Josh Safdie - December 22, 2025
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Interview: Production Designer Jack Fisk on Recreating 1950s New York and Building a Ping Pong Playground in ‘Marty Supreme’ 
Interview: Cinematographer Darius Khondji on Shooting on Film and Finding the Light and the Darkness of ‘Marty Supreme’ 
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