Here’s the thing about Timothée Chalamet: he’s basically perfect. He’s charming, funny, self-aware, the kind of celebrity who seems like he actually thinks about stuff. So when he put his foot in his mouth at a CNN and Variety town hall on February 21, it was honestly impressive how bad it looked.
He was with Matthew McConaughey, talking about why movies matter and why people should get off their couches and go to theaters. Somewhere in that speech, trying to make the point that cinema is still culturally relevant, he said he wouldn’t want to work in an art form that “no one cares about,” and named ballet and opera as his examples. After he said that, he knew he had messed up. “I just lost 14 cents in viewership,” he said. “I just took shots for no reason.”
Yeah, Timothée. You did.
What followed was hilarious. The Met Opera posted about it. LA Opera posted about it. The English National Opera sent him free tickets. The Boston Ballet gave him a second chance to “change his mind.” The Seattle Opera, and this is what made me laugh out loud, launches a discount code called TIMOTHEE. The classical arts got together and collectively chose chaos, and it was very entertaining.
But what actually hit the heart? Megan Fairchild, a principal dancer from the New York City Ballet, wrote: “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.” Read it again. Notice how she didn’t yell or call him names? She simply pointed out, calmly, that he had no idea what he was talking about, and she was right.
Here’s the part that makes it a full circle moment: Chalamet grew up backstage at the Koch Theater in New York. His grandmother, mother, and sister danced with the NYC Ballet.
The internet had a field day. Rightfully so.
By the Oscars in March, the joke was widely known. Conan O’Brien opened the ceremony, warning about tight security due to the threats from “the opera and ballet community.” Later, a short film winner paused mid speech after saying “ballet” to let the crowd react, before finishing with “and also cinema.” Everyone lost it. Chalamet, to his credit, seemed to take it in stride.
Realistically, I don’t think Chalamet actually hates ballet. I think he was trying to make a point about cinema’s reach and grabbed the wrong examples. But the reason everyone had such a big reaction is because the arts world has heard dismissal forever, usually from people with far less charm and a lot more power over funding decisions. “No one cares” is how the NEA grants get cut. It’s how university arts programs get quietly defunded. And it especially hurts from an actor many admire.
The strange silver lining though would be this whole mess got a lot more people googling “NYC Ballet tickets” than any other campaign the company has run in years. The Seattle Opera’s discount code went viral. Megan Fairchild’s post got shared by people who never even thought about ballet. An accidental insult from a celebrity did more for classical arts than any advertisement could do.
So maybe everyone won, in the end. The arts got attention. Conan got a joke. Chalamet got roasted at the biggest ceremony of his career.
And somewhere, his grandma definitely lectured him.
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