What Marty Supreme Reveals About the New Era of Actor-Driven Film Promotion
Actor Timothée Chalamet dropped into a marketing meeting for his new film Marty Supreme and over the next eighteen minutes offered a view of how film marketing brainstorms work, especially when actors want to have an input into the creative direction.
The film from A24, the American independent film production company, is inspired by the life of the real-life champion Marty Reisman. Set in the 1950s New York, the film is due for release at the end of the year, Christmas in the US and from the 26th elsewhere, and the drop of this video certainly got people talking about Marty Supreme, as well as, of course, what Chalamet is up to.
Whilst some people have had to ask and check why Chalamet was behaving so strangely and intensely, this was no ordinary film brainstorm. Not just because the lead in the film was present in the marketing session, but because this meeting is part of a well thought out campaign from the studio to grab attention ahead of its release and ultimately create shareable content. And as we will see, as many studios increasingly do, the campaign is leaning into their lead actors for parodying themselves or bringing their character into real world settings.
In an ever crowded space, creative marketing teams are thinking of new ways to generate hype and buzz. Placing the stars of the film into situations away from the film world, when done well, delivers eye balls on social media and makes headlines. For destinations or film offices looking at what content strategies work in wider film campaigns, this shows what can work when there is buy-in from the talent, the studio and their agents for creative and fun ideas. Of course, it may be a big stretch for many destinations to get this level of access to stars to make content just for their location or for them to go slightly off script and create ‘edgy’ content.
We will look first at the key elements of the Timothée Chalamet video and the wider marketing around Marty Supreme, and then explore other campaigns where studios placed their stars at the centre of the creative strategy to show how actor-led promotion works in practice.
Inside the Marty Supreme Creative Call: Chalamet Goes Full “Make It Orange”
After the formal introductions, Chalamet thanks everyone for joining and says it’s “very humbling” to be invited to the creative call, before immediately flipping into his successes to date with “amazing movie, after amazing movie, after amazing movie”, a humble brag delivered completely straight. From there the meeting slides into a mix of his self-assured energy and chaotic ideas being dropped. He gazes into the video camera as he shouts out “shwep!” after reeling off some of the director Josh Safdie’s past films, and talks about the need for “integration” and “culmination” on the ideas. He also adds “fruitionizing”, into the chaotic mix of buzz words that he hopes will inspire the direction of the ideas for the film, a word he admits is made up but was already teased on his Instagram earlier in the year for eagle-eyed fans.
Chalamet then shifts into full creative visionary mode, declaring the film must be “one of the most important things to happen on planet earth this year”. The ideas that follow swing between risky and wildly ambitious: a world where the film Marty Supreme owns a colour in the way Barbie owned pink, except this version is “hard-core orange”. To prove the point, he screen-shares a simple orange square he claims took months to develop. From there he unveils mock-ups of the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks drenched in the same orange tone. The nervous marketers, or are they also actors, tiptoe around how this would be possible without saying they hate the idea.
Chalamet then goes all in with suggesting a blimp as a giant orange airship raining Marty-branded ping-pong balls at a festival. The team nod along, offering only polite safety caveats while trying not to break character and break out laughing. And, in true Hollywood fashion, he closes the meeting with a meditation, a perfectly absurd round off of a session that progressively got more and more weird.
Audiences In on the Joke
Viewers, thanks to Chalamet playing game, get a ring side seat into the absurdity of a studio creative meeting and see behind the curtain, even if it is done for laughs. This video also taps into people enjoying the high levels of cringe and being witness to an awkward meeting, even if they know it is all loosely scripted and exaggerated.
What this does well is that it mocks creative and marketing meetings, which many people will relate to, through Chalamet confidently pitching ideas that are a bit too off the wall. Add in a dose of his own self-assuredness and you have a magic formula. Meanwhile the other marketers on the video call are doing that polite industry dance of trying to stay supportive while clearly dying inside.
In the case of Marty Supreme and this off-the-wall marketing meeting, Chalamet channels an exaggerated version of himself which is why it works. In doing so the studio knows that some will not get the jokes and others may find it a bit too much. But the payoff is simple: it creates talkability, to borrow a marketing buzz word.
Why the Timothée Chalamet Video Works as Viral Film Marketing
Fundamentally, these types of pieces work when actors like Chalamet are willing to poke fun at themselves. However, the timing of the video shows that whilst the orange takeover of the Statue of Liberty may not happen (or will it), a real orange blimp has started appearing in the US, with a video of Chalamet in LA in front of it, fully branded with Marty Supreme. There has also been a see-through van filled with orange ping-pong balls spotted driving around. It sits within a wider marketing ecosystem for this film, which also includes clothing and merch, with some retro inspired Marty Supreme–branded track jackets and the launch of a pink windbreaker. This is alongside a stylish pop-up shop selling some of the merch with mannequins with giant orange ping pong heads. Finally, for the moment, an orange blimp floats past in Google when you use the search term Marty Supreme.
The ultimate aim when you have a star attached to a piece like this is finding inventive ways to get more eyeballs ahead of release. It lands well because people started quoting the phrases he drops in the session, like “hard-core orange” and “fruitionizing”, and once they realise this is staged, many unfamiliar with the film will go looking for why orange and what’s the thing with ping pong balls.
Public Reaction: Memes, Confusion and a Spike in Marty Supreme Searches
Judging by comments on social media and forums, the fake meeting has already provided rich pickings for a series of memes and buzzwords for people to share posts around. This of course includes ‘fruitionizing’ with screenshots of the Zoom call, others with images of their breakfast and starting their day channeling the energy of this made up word, and others pictures of Chalamet in front of a mirror with those buzz words.
YouTube and Reddit comments include those who were not sure if it was a leaked video, “It’s a spoof, right?”, whereas others loved it for skewering meetings they had to endure, “This is genius because it feels real” and “This is exactly what bad client meetings are like.” And what A24 hoped for, comments were already using some of the phrases that Chalamet dropped, “This will become a meme” and someone else stating, “Can we make fruitionizing a word? And to that I say Schwap!!!!!”.
And a more subtle thread running underneath: people who had never heard of the film now went to Google to search “Marty Supreme.” Which means the content worked. It created intrigue first and then sent people on a journey to find out more. On Google Trends searches for the buzz words “fruitionizing” and the “shwep” outburst surged at the same times as searches for “Timothée Chalamet Zoom”. This was along with spikes for searches for “Marty Supreme”, “orange blimp” and ‘orange ping pong” on the back of the video dropping.
Other brands also jumped in with Otter AI, the note-taking and transcription service, posting a transcription of the call taken on their app. Goodyear on the back of the social media chatter on the orange blimp, posted a cheeky sketch of their own blimp going head to head with Marty Supreme, challenging the film to a game of ping pong.
Watch the full Timothée Chalamet fruitionizing session below.
Other Films That Used Star-Led Marketing to Drive Hype
More and more actors and films are allowing their stars to take the lead on the creative direction of promotional content. In the case of Marty Supreme, Chalamet clearly bought into the idea and ran with it, playing an exaggerated version of himself. This fits into a wider pattern in the industry where actors are increasingly breaking that fourth wall and placing the character in real world scenarios such as the marketing meeting or talking direct to the audience in parody style videos. These tend to work when the film or character is well loved and has a buzz around it or the star has a legion of fans.
How Ryan Reynolds Helped Redefine Actor-Driven Film Promotion
Ryan Reynolds for Marvel’s Deadpool franchise, set a new benchmark for what is possible when the lead of a film also has a seat at the table when it comes to creative marketing ideas (no shade on Chalamet here).
The studio allowed him to come into the marketing fold more than they ordinarily would, partly because Reynolds was the driver behind getting the film made. The Hollywood Reporter shared how Reynolds would often email the Fox marketing lead at all hours with his creative ideas such was his enthusiasm for the marketing around the project. The R rating in the US also allowed the humour for the creative ideas to go right up to the edge.
Campaign ideas with Reynolds’ as creative director of sorts on the project included a testicular-awareness video, an Australia Day spoof having a light dig at the Aussies, a Bob Ross parody with a healthy dose of swearing, an unexpected David Beckham apology with a mariachi band, an Old Spice spoof and several reaction clips. With Deadpool and Wolverine he now had Hugh Jackman joining in on the fun and with unannounced appearances such as visit to a London chicken shop and football match in Germany.
Reynolds through Deadpool created a new rule book for film marketers on what is possible when studios work more closely with talent and lean into star led marketing. While Marty Supreme is a very different beast, Chalamet and A24 are clearly following the same idea of pushing boundaries and making audiences second guess. The end result for all the Deadpool films is a run of content that pulled in fans and the wider public into the films orbit long before release.
Barbie Marketing with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling: Its Fantastic
Barbie is slightly different from the sketch-led and parody examples. The campaign lent into the two leads, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and letting their eye catching and at times visually eye-catching and hilarious moments in the film speak for themselves. Barbie campaign successfully dominated the cultural landscape and became 2023’s standout promotional event, when for months in the lead up there was wall-to-wall pink.
Robbie was more than just the lead but the main glue that got the movie made – like with Deadpool – having secured Greta Gerwig as the screenwriter and director, and then pitching to Warner Bros and Mattel. Ryan Gosling’s Kennergy also became a defining thread of the promo cycle and brought in male audiences and his fanbase. This also saw a release of a music video and culminating in a stand out choreographed Oscars performance that went everywhere.
Both Robbie and Gosling leaned into the character in interviews and other junket appearances which led to lots of further viral clips. Warner Bros did release a 2001 and Kubrick-inspired teaser trailer at the startk partly to break preconceived ideas around the film, with a giant size Barbie looking out over the scene of young girls breaking their old fashioned dolls.
Zoolander at Paris Fashion Week: A Fashion Stunt That Went Global
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson walked the Valentino runway at Paris Fashion Week in character as Derek Zoolander and Hansel for Zoolander 2. It was a perfect crossover of the film and fashion worlds, helped by the success of the first film and the way the characters and their signature phrases had become embedded in the fashion world. Fashion Week already had cameras, global press and influencers, and the stunt went viral immediately.
They continued appearing in character during junkets and other promo moments, playing up the vapid male model energy. They took over the Valentino Rome store windows in character and Stiller even strutted in front of the Eiffel Tower with Cara Delevingne, showing how game stars can turn small stunts into viral moments.
Team Thor: Marvel’s Mockumentary Approach to Actor-Led Promo
Before Thor Ragnarok came out, Marvel released short comedy sketches showing Thor living with a random human called Darryl. Completely separate from the film and presented as mockumentary, these clips pulled millions of views and showed the appetite for material outside the main narrative.
They also showed how effective it is when a lead actor plays an exaggerated version of the character in real world settings and how this strengthens connection with audiences.
