Timothée Chalamet has caught criticism for a flippant remark he made about the popularity of opera and ballet.
The Marty Supreme actor was discussing efforts to keep cinemas alive during a University of Texas event in conversation with Matthew McConaughey and produced by Variety and CNN last month when he made the comment.
The pair, who have been friends since starring in Interstellar together over a decade ago, discussed the ongoing trend of films placing big action pieces “up front” to keep moviegoers entertained.
He explained that he’s “in the middle” of the debate, feeling that it’s important to keep movie theatres alive but that “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.”
He then added, to laughter from the audience, “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.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”
Chalamet then acknowledged that his comments might not be well-received by everyone, joking, “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”
Since the actor made the remark, opera singers and ballet dancers have responded with upset. Opera singer Isabel Leonard wrote in a comment on the video that she was “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.”
Fellow opera singer Deepa Johnny described it as a “disappointing take” and added, “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.”
Ballet dancer Victor Caixeta replied that the two art forms “have survived for centuries” and questioned whether Chalamet’s films would still be watched in 300 years, while ballet choreographer and ‘Eras’ tour dancer Kam Saunders simply wrote, “Yikes”.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Chalamet and McConaughey looked back on the time the latter left a “huge” poo in the former’s trailer toilet while filming Interstellar.
“I gotta say, my last day on Interstellar, I was sad to be leaving,” Chalamet said. “In my trailer, I went to the bathroom and there was a huge turd in my toilet. I felt so disrespected. Like, ‘I know I’m not the star of this movie, but who’s coming in here?’
“So I went around to all the grips, these big guys, and I said, ‘Hey, one of you let it loose in my trailer.’ They said no. I went up to [director Christopher] Nolan, and he pointed to Matthew, and Matthew had this devilish grin on his face. I said, ‘Why’d you do that?’ You said, ‘In Texas, it’s a coming of age, baby.’”
Chalamet, meanwhile, is up for Best Actor at the Oscars next weekend for his role as Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme, with the movie also receiving nominations for Best Picture among other awards.
NME gave the table tennis comedy-drama a glowing five-star review, writing: “This is a story about living a great life, however you may define that. It is a film about living fully and without fear, a cynicism-free zone where, for all their fast-talking, people love each other so much it makes your heart feel like it’s about to burst. Talk about a smash.”