Timothée Chalamet first took aim at ballet and opera years before he suggested both were dying artforms in a recent interview.
“I was like, no woe is me thing, but whether you’re working on movies or acting, or pursuing your thing, I started to get the sense that [movies were], like, opera or ballet or something. It’s kind of like a dying artform or something,” Chalamet, 30, said in a 2019 TikTok clip that resurfaced in the wake of his latest comments.
Chalamet made those statements during a promotional screening for his 2019 movie The King. The four-time Oscar nominee cited the cultural conversation around his hit movies Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird as proof that cinema wasn’t fading away.
TikTok user @thealienstookover explained in the caption that they reuploaded the footage to show that Chalamet has a history of denigrating opera and ballet.
“I took this video October 1st 2019,” they wrote. “I was excited to see this film and we got a surprise appearance of him in our theater. With his recent comments about ballet and opera I wanted to check on my video. I thought I remembered him saying something different. Unfortunately I was confused and he’s been thinking like this for years. Such a disappointment.”
In February, Chalamet ignited debate by seemingly dismissing ballet and opera during an interview with Matthew McConaughey for Variety.
“Some people want to be entertained quickly. I’m really right in the middle,” the Marty Supreme actor admitted. “Because I admire people and I’ve done it myself on a talk show, [saying], ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. We gotta keep this genre alive.”
He added, “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. 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.’”
Chalamet seemingly realized the shade he’d thrown because he quickly offered “all respect to the ballet and opera people out there.”
“Damn, I just took shots for no reason,” he joked.
His latest comments have proven to be particularly eyebrow-raising for some because Chalamet’s mother, Nicole Flender, is a former Broadway dancer.
It did not take long for some of the world’s most renowned ballets and operas to respond to Chalamet. The Metropolitan Opera shared clips via Instagram showcasing the skilled craftwork that goes into the creation of every high-level opera performance.
Quoting Chalamet, the Met Opera replied on Thursday, March 5, “All respect to the opera (and ballet) people out there. This one’s for you, @tchalamet.”
“He’s gonna be singing a different tune when the live arts are all that’s left after AI takes over. Oh wait. He’s above singing a tune,” Tony winner Laura Benati quipped in the Met Opera’s comments section.
The Los Angeles Opera took a different approach by encouraging Chalamet to come see a performance of Akhnaten during its residency in the city. Meanwhile, the Royal Ballet in the U.K. posted a tribute to its dancers.
“Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance,” they wrote on Friday, March 6. “If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open. ✨#TheRoyalBallet #TheRoyalOpera #RoyalBalletAndOpera.”
Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Dancing With The Stars pro Sharna Burgess and popstar Doja Cat have also shown support for the opera and ballet communities in the wake of the controversy.
“Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old,” Doja Cat, 30, clapped back via TikTok on Sunday, March 8. “Somebody named Timothée Chalamet — big guy, by the way — had the nerve to say on camera that nobody cares about it.”
The “Agora Hills” rapper went on, “I’m sure you can walk into an opera theater right now, seats will be filled out, and nobody’s saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it. There is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing theater medium. It’s f***ing beautiful.”
Chalamet has not responded to the backlash.
