Timothee Chalamet Faces Backlash Following Comments About Ballet and Opera

By Olivia Armstead

Courtesy of Wall Street Journal

Fans in the art community are not happy with Timothee Chalamet’s most recent comments pertaining to ballet and opera. 

Chalamet participated in a conversation with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey in collaboration with CNN and Variety at the University of Texas at Austin. After reflecting on the challenges that movie theaters face in today’s age, Chalamet then shifted his focus towards other art forms, specifically ballet and opera. 

“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore,” Chalamet said, per PEOPLE Magazine. 

Following his comments, Chalamet received a ton of backlash on social media with fans criticizing his comments and pointing out the fact that Chalamet’s mother, sister, and grandmother were all ballerinas who danced with the New York City Ballet. Popular art institutions such as the Metropolitan Opera and the Seattle Opera also clapped back at Chalamet with a TikTok video and a discount on seating using the code “TIMOTHEE”. 

Celebrities made sure to give their two cents on Chalamet’s comments, like singer Doja Cat. “I'm sure you could walk into an opera theater right now, seats would be filled out, and nobody is saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it,” said the “Paint the Town Red” artist per USA Today.

Three weeks after his comments, neither Chalamet nor his movie “Marty Supreme” won any of the awards that they were nominated for at the Oscars. Fans were quick to wonder whether or not Chalamet’s comments cost him and his movie the wins. 

Young creatives seem to have strong opinions about Chalamet’s comments, citing how it discredits the impact of the ballet and opera communities and how it could’ve cost him his Oscar wins. 

“To hear someone in the performing arts space completely discredit the legacy of ballet and opera is truly disheartening. As a dancer myself, I found his comment hurtful and inaccurate when I know firsthand the continued impact that ballet has,” said Hayden Talley, a member of the Terpsichorean Dance Company at Hampton University.