A very unexpected candidate has put themselves forward to play a villain opposite the new James Bond – but having seen Marty Supreme, it makes perfect sense.
While Timothée Chalamet has grabbed headlines for his virtuoso performance as Marty Mauser, an aspiring ping-pong world champion who is also rather a terrible person, he wasn’t the only performer in the movie leaning into awfulness.
Writer-director Josh Safdie made the unconventional and highly risky choice of casting a non-actor to star opposite Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion in the film, considered an awards season favourite: Kevin O’Leary.
O’Leary is best known – to US audiences at least – as one of the entrepreneur stars of Shark Tank, the US equivalent of Dragon’s Den, after selling his educational software company to Mattel for $4.2 billion (£3.1bn).
But now he appears to be spreading his wings creatively as he considers acting job offers that have come in following Marty Supreme’s release.
‘I’ve definitely caught the bug, and I want to see how diverse I can be in terms of what roles I play,’ he told Variety.
But there is one part he’s already itching to do – and is confident he could deliver.
‘My whole life, since I was a teenager, I’ve wanted to be the bad guy in a Bond movie. I want to blow s**t up. I could blow a lot of s**t up.’
And while this might appear a wild swing, if you’ve seen Marty Supreme you can probably understand why this could actually be a brilliant stroke of casting.
Recalling TV producer Mark Burnett’s pitch for him to join the Shark Tank ahead of its debut in 2009, O’Leary told the publication: ‘He said, “We’re looking for a real a**hole, and you’re it.”’ I said, “Do I take that as a compliment?” We never looked back after that.’
And for Marty Supreme, Safdie uttered those exact same words to O’Leary, who is also known as Mr Wonderful thanks to his aggressive TV personality: ‘We’re looking for a real a**hole.’
The 71-year-old venture capitalist plays millionaire pen magnate Milton Rockwell in Marty Supreme, married to Paltrow’s fading movie star Kay Stone.
And despite his irate temperament (and the fact that he’s sleeping with his wife), Marty somehow manages to get Milton as a financial backer… although their relationship is fraught with anger and betrayal.
While Marty might say horrific things, and ruthlessly use and discard people, so too does Milton. And this is where we stray into Bond villain territory.
In one memorable scene he paddles Chalamet’s bare behind with a table tennis bat with pure glee – and eyewatering force.
O’Leary also said it was ‘easy’ to beat Chalamet up ‘because he was that arrogant little b*****d right out of the gate – that assumptive little p***k. It was amazing’.
Aside from violence and attitude, Milton could absolutely be the springboard to supreme Bond baddie for O’Leary as his sense of entitlement and ego – as well as a streak of viciousness – all play into the best villains in the franchise.
If there was any doubt either, O’Leary was definitely ready to go a step further and level things up sadistically for the movie – again, as all good baddies do.
Do you think Kevin O’Leary could play a Bond villain?
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Yes, his work in Marty Supreme gave me the right vibes
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No, he's not even an actor!
O’Leary aired his displeasure in general with the happy ending of Marty Supreme in the interview, but also revealed the ending that he foresaw – and that was with Milton literally biting Marty.
In fact, he says, Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein ‘went as far as to make digital teeth’ before deciding to go in a different direction.
‘I know that sounds nuts, but to me that would be the right punishment,’ O’Leary added.
While the role of James Bond himself and his next antagonist both remain formally vacant, building rumours in recent days put the coveted spy part as Callum Turner’s to lose, whipping up discourse once again.
Denis Villeneuve is already set to direct Bond 26, with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight penning the script.
Marty Supreme is in cinemas now.
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