Koto Kawaguchi | |
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| Born | September 7, 1999 |
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| Known for | Marty Supreme |
Koto Kawaguchi (born 1999) is a Japanese deaf table tennis player and actor. [1] [2] He competes in deaf table tennis for Toyota Motor Corporation and won a bronze medal in the men's team event at the 2022 Summer Deaflympics. [3] [1] He made his acting debut as Koto Endo in Josh Safdie's film Marty Supreme (2025). [2]
Kawaguchi has been playing table tennis professionally since 2019 and is affiliated with Toyota Motor Corporation. [2] [3] He has won multiple titles in Japanese national deaf table tennis competitions, including first place in singles at the 53rd National Sports Competition for the Deaf in 2019. [3] At the 2022 Summer Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, he won a bronze medal in the men's team event. [1] [3]
In 2025, Kawaguchi was cast in Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme as Koto Endo, a Japanese table tennis champion who serves as the main rival to Timothée Chalamet's protagonist Marty Mauser. [4] The character, who is depicted as deaf in the film, was partially inspired by Kawaguchi himself and partially by Hiroji Satoh, a Japanese champion who competed against Marty Reisman in the 1950s. [5]
Toyota produced an audition video of Kawaguchi playing table tennis and shared it with the film's production through a translator. [2] Kawaguchi had no prior acting experience and has said he initially thought the casting offer was a scam. [2] The film features live table tennis play in its match sequences, with Kawaguchi performing opposite Chalamet. [6]