Oscar nominated actor Timothée Chalamet made an off-the-cuff comment about opera and ballet which ended up offending countless fellow artists who accused him of being ‘disrespectful’
A Complete Unknown star Timothée Chalamet has managed to completely alienate himself from many of his fellow artists after saying “no one cares” about ballet or opera. The Oscar nominee’s bold statement has seen opera singers and ballet dancers blast the “disrespectful” actor for his off-the-cuff comment.
The exchange in question came about while the 30-year-old was speaking to actor and producer Matthew McConaughey last month, as part of a live conversation The pair were discussing how films have cut much of the build up to accommodate audiences’ shorter attention spans, with McConaughey asking: “In this day of shorter attention spans, vertical 12-second spots, are we losing attention?”
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Chalamet pointed out in the Variety chat, that films such as Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix original Frankenstein suggested younger film lovers do still want a slow-paced film. He added: “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. I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say ‘hey, we’ve got to keep movie theatres 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.”
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Then, inadvertently taking aim at other art forms, Chalamet added: “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.’”
Backtracking, he added: “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I’m taking shots for no reason.” McConaughey replied: “That’s not a shot, I hear what you’re saying:
Offended artists have commented on Chalamet’s slight, with Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny writing: “What a disappointing take. 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. The impact of these mediums are long lasting and life changing.”
Meanwhile, American opera singer Isabel Leonard branded Chalamet as “narrow-minded”, writing: “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 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. 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.”
LA-based singer and photographer Franz Szony weighed in on the saga with a scathing statement. The artist added: “Two classical art forms that have been around for hundreds of years, both of which take a massive amount of talent and discipline this man will never possess.
“Speaks volumes about his taste level for him to say this… also, saying ‘no disrespect’ after saying something disrespectful actually translates to ‘I disrespect art I don’t understand’.”
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