'Marty Supreme release': Meet the duo who helped Timothée Chalamet master table tennis

Diego Schaaf and his wife Wei Wang spoke to NBC News about how they helped prepare Timothée Chalamet for “Marty Supreme.”

PASADENA, Calif. — When director Josh Safdie first approached him to help with “Marty Supreme,” Diego Schaaf genuinely couldn’t “put a face to the name” of the film’s star, he said.

“Do you know who Timothée Chalamet is?” Schaaf wrote in a text to his 20-year-old niece. “We’re going to be working on a movie with him.” Her response was just three letters: “O.M.G.”

Few are likely to pick Schaaf, 71, out of a crowd, either. But since 1993, he and his wife, Wei Wang, 64, have built a name for themselves in Hollywood helping A-list stars like Chalamet become table tennis pros.

The duo, who run Alpha Productions out of Pasadena, work as consultants for films, shows, commercials and music videos involving table tennis. Their credits include “Forrest Gump,” “Friends” and “Balls of Fury,” among other projects.

Diego Schaaf, 71, repping swag from "Marty Supreme."Maggie Shannon for NBC NewsA24’s “Marty Supreme,” a buzzy Oscars contender that debuted widely in North American theaters on Christmas Day, depicts a fictionalized version of the career of mid-century table tennis champ Marty Reisman. To transform into the character Marty Mauser, a U.S. table tennis star whose dream is to win the world title, Chalamet had to pass as a world-class player.