Someone, please, tell Greta Gerwig to get her child under control. Pinterest’s favorite actor has gotten himself into some hot water. TimothĂ©e Chalamet has gone viral in the past few weeks, and it is not because of a Marty Supreme Oscar win. Chalamet is facing intense backlash over a comment he made in a video, which has been taken as him claiming that ballet and opera are dying arts. The internet is doing what it does best, and has taken this comment way out of context. I watched the full, hour-long video. Here’s what I have to say.Â
In order to understand this PR nightmare, we first need to understand what happened in the first place. The comment was taken out of a Variety & CNN town hall conversation between Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey, held at The University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication. The two met on Interstellar (2014), playing father and son. They spent most of the conversation discussing their careers, how they prepare for roles, and the great directors they have worked with over their time as actors. As McConaughey was present for the first major film of Chalamet’s career, Chalamet greatly looked up to him, and they re-visited a lot of the advice that McConaughey gave Chalamet at the time, with Chalamet noting that it was crucial to the development of his career.
Now onto the infamous moment. The exact line spoken by Chalamet, which has garnered so much bad press, is as follows: “And I don’t wanna be working in ballet, or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, hey, keep this thing alive, even though it’s like no one cares about this anymore.” After hearing that comment on its own for the first time on TikTok, I was just about as annoyed by it as everyone else is. But after watching the whole conversation and getting a bit more context, I have found that it was not actually as malicious as it is being made out to be.
In the minutes preceding this comment, the two discuss the impact that short-form content is having on the structure of movie scripts. McConaughey speaks about how, as an actor, the best part of a movie is the first act. In the three-act model of script construction, the first act is generally made up of exposition and does not include much of the action. He also touches on the fact that, due to short-form content impacting audience attention span, audiences expect instant gratification on the promise of action in a film. Chalamet agrees and adds that he feels the reverse is also true, and that the oversaturation of short-form content on the internet is causing young people to seek out media that moves at a slower pace. Chalamet then begins to speak on the longevity of movie theatres and of cinema as an art form. While speaking on this, he makes the comment quoted earlier. Afterwards, he backtracks, and McConaughey quickly shifts the conversation.
I think that the most important piece of context for what he said comes from what he said immediately beforehand. The full quote is:Â
“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and go, “Hey, we gotta keep movie theatres alive, you know, we gotta keep this genre alive.” And another part of me feels like, if people wanna see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re gonna go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it. And I don’t wanna be working in ballet, or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, hey, keep this thing alive, even though it’s like no one cares about this anymore.”
From what I saw in this video, McConaughey and Chalamet care about their craft and want to see it survive in the long term. I am not in any way saying that what Chalamet said about ballet and opera was right, but I do understand where he was coming from in the rest of the quote, even if he phrased it poorly. Do not get me wrong, I am an acting major, and I believe that live performance is one of the most phenomenal and genuine things that people can experience. But I would be lying if I said I thought that everyone felt the same way.Â
Ballet and opera are absolutely not dying art forms, full stop. But they are also no longer the first thing the average person goes for when they want entertainment. Opera houses and ballet companies have no problems getting butts in seats on the daily, and remain extremely important parts of culture. But it is still true that streaming services and short-form content apps are pulling focus from live performance, and that they are starting to do the same thing to movie theatres. Chalamet’s claim that “no one cares about this anymore” is not based in truth regarding ballet and opera, but it does seem to be a projection of his real fear that his art form of choice is about to be wiped out of the mainstream.
While we can infer what Chalamet meant all we want, it is still important to talk about what he actually said. Claiming that no one cares about art forms that are very much alive and well, especially art forms that multiple members of his own family have worked in, is extremely disrespectful and hurtful to the people who dedicate their lives to these arts and to the work they put into doing so.Â
Praising Chalamet as a tortured indie actor who does no wrong is not the right move, but neither is refusing to acknowledge that he seems to have been attempting to make a good point. My takeaway from this entire situation is that, as artists, there will always be people who tell us that our work does not matter. We all want longevity for our crafts, and we will never achieve that through being that person for another artist. There is room at the table for everyone, and ballet and opera sat down long before film. To anyone reading this: buy a ticket to a live performance, go see a movie, visit a museum, or, for the love of god, just get off of TikTok.