The Opera and Ballet Community Haven’t Taken Those Timothée Chalamet Comments Well: “We Should Be Trying to Uplift These Art Forms”
Awards season can be tough. You’re at the forefront of every red carpet, every show, doing every interview, and marketing yourself as best you can while promoting a film. All eyes are on you, and it unfortunately leaves you wide open to criticism — take a look at best actress Oscar frontrunner Jessie Buckley, who this week is catching flak on social media for admitting that she asked her now-husband to rehome his cats when they started dating.
Despite his successful Marty Supreme marketing moves, Timothée Chalamet is also not exempt from the online furor. In a resurfaced clip from his live conversation with Interstellar co-star Matthew McConaughey for Variety, the duo discuss audiences’ eroded attention spans and whether there is an appetite for slower-paced films.
Chalamet said there is among younger fans, citing Netflix’s Frankenstein, adding: “It does take you having to wave a flag of, ‘Hey, this is a serious movie,’ or something, and some people do want to be entertained and quickly. I’m really right in the middle, Matthew,” he continued, “I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive, we’ve gotta keep this genre alive,’ and another part of me feels like if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it.”
The Academy Award nominee then says, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore,’” he says with a laugh. “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there … I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I’m taking shots for no reason.”
This is the part that has done the rounds on social media and left opera houses and ballet dancers a little fired up. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, a spokesperson from the U.K.’s flagship opera house countered Chalamet’s claims.
The Royal Ballet and Opera said: “Ballet and opera have never existed in isolation — they have continually informed, inspired, and elevated other art forms. Their influence can be felt across theatre, film, contemporary music, fashion, and beyond. For centuries, these disciplines have shaped the way artists create and audiences experience culture, and today millions of people around the world continue to enjoy and engage with them.”
American opera singer Isabel Leonard also responded to the clip. She wrote in a comment about the Chalamet video: “Honestly, I’m shocked that someone so seemingly successful can be so ineloquent and narrow-minded in his views about art while considering himself as [an] artist as I would only imagine one would as an actor.
“To take cheap shots at fellow artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say. Shows a lot about his character,” she continued. “You don’t have to like all art but only a weak person/artist feels the need to diminish in fact the VERY arts that would inspire those who are interested in slowing down, to do exactly that.”
Elsewhere, Canadian opera singer Deepa Johnny called it a “disappointing take” and said: “There is nothing more impressive than the magic of live theatre, ballet and opera. We should be trying to uplift these art forms, these artists and come together across disciplines to do that.”
Irish opera singer Seán Tester posted on his Instagram to say that Chalamet’s choice of words “is the kind of reductive take you hear when popularity is mistaken for cultural value.
“They are not outdated art forms. They are living ones, constantly reinterpreted, constantly evolving … It’s always fascinating when artists with global platforms dismiss opera and ballet as irrelevant. Opera and ballet have survived wars … To call these art forms irrelevant says far less about the art itself than it does about how little time someone has spent truly experiencing it.”
THR took a deep dive into Chalamet’s widely speculated Oscar hopes this week, exploring how his Marty Supreme campaign lost momentum in the lead-up to the 98th Academy Awards on March 15.
