Ballet and opera companies around the world have called out Timothée Chalamet following the actor’s less-than-complimentary remarks about the art forms in a recent interview.
In February, Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey sat down for an Austin, Texas town hall event produced by Variety and CNN, where the two actors talked about their craft. While discussing their audience’s shortened attention spans, Chalamet said, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera. Things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”
Chalamet quickly realized how his comment could be considered disparaging and added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. Damn, I just took shots for no reason.”
Although the town hall event was broadcast in February, Chalamet’s comments resurfaced on a global scale this week as many of the world’s top opera and ballet companies responded to the actor’s remarks this week.
The Los Angeles Opera wrote on social media, “Sorry, @tchalamet. We’d offer you complimentary tickets to Akhnaten, but it’s selling out. There are a few seats left to purchase if you hurry.”
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London’s Royal Ballet and Opera said on social media, “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. If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open.”
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New York City Ballet dancer Megan Fairchild added in a video posted on Instagram, “Timmy, I didn’t realize you were a world class dancer or opera singer, who simply chose not to pursue it because acting is more popular. Ballet and opera aren’t niche hobbies people opt out of for fame.”
Fairchild continued, “Good luck in the Oscar race. Artists supporting artists matters. None of these paths are easy, and there’s no need to put ballet or opera down along the way.”
As Pointe Magazine points out, Chalamet’s remarks came despite his own family’s history in the art form: Chalamet’s mother Nicole Flender studied at the School of American Ballet and attended Yale on a dance scholarship, and later taught dance in the New York public school system. Chalamet himself was also recently photographed wearing a New York City Ballet hat.
The Seattle Opera cleverly incentivised Chalamet’s comments with the promo code “Timothee”:
The Metropolitan Opera wrote on social media in a post that tagged Chalamet, “All respect to the opera (and ballet) people out there.”
From Rolling Stone US
