Actors, performers and now directors have criticized Timothée Chalamet’s remarks about ballet and opera with Steven Spielberg the latest to speak out
Directing legend Steven Spielberg has become the latest name in showbiz to slam Timothée Chalamet’s derisive comments about ballet and opera this week.
The Oscar-hopeful spoke to Matthew McConaughey last month about the difficulties of keeping cinema relevant, with Chalamet saying he did not want his work to wind up like ballet or opera where “no one cares about this anymore.”
Speaking at a University of Texas event, Chalamet said, “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.'”
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He quickly added his “respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” but it wasn’t enough to calm the outrage spiral that followed.
As well as facing criticism from ballerinas and opera singers, and stage performers more broadly, Chalamet has also come under fire from fellow filmmakers. Spielberg is the latest name to join the fray, sharing his thoughts at the South by Southwest film festival.
He said, “But for me, the real experience comes when we can influence a community to congregate in a strange, dark space where all of us are strangers.
“At the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with, or into the nighttime with. And there’s nothing like that. It happens in movies, and in concerts.” He slyly added, “And it happens in ballet and opera, by the way.”
Meanwhile Jamie Lee Curtis shared a video by Zach McNally where he questioned, “Why is Timothée Chalamet taking shots at opera and ballet? Why are any artists taking shots at any other artist in the time where artificial intelligence threatens literally all art forms, except performing art like plays, ballets and operas and musicals.”
Broadway star Nathan Lane branded Chalamet a “schmuck” on The View, adding, “Well, one doesn’t want to give this more attention than it deserves and yet….you know it was kind of kaleidoscopic in its stupidity and insensitivity and yet strangely telling about where we are in this country.”
Chalamet, 30, has been nominated for Best Actor at the 98th Academy Awards or his role in Marty Supreme, which is also up for Best Picture. However, the Wonka star is considered unlikely to win on Sunday, March 15.
An insider shared that Timothée has “blown his chances for a few reasons,” one of them being his loud persona. While speaking to The U.S. Sun, the source explained, “Nominees who are favored more tend to be more understated and Timothee is the opposite of that.”
“Then there’s Kylie,” they went on to day. “While I certainly would never place any blame on her, she’s done nothing wrong, it does shift the narrative when the leading Oscar nominee brings a Kardashian as their date,” the source explained. “Many people have preconceived notions of what that means.”
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