(NEXSTAR) — Who knew the opera and ballet industries were so gangster? Days after comments actor Timothée Chalamet made seemingly dissing both art forms went viral, companies and performers from both industries have clapped back hard.
It all started after part of a one-on-one chat with Chalmet and “Interstellar” co-star Matthew McConaughey hit social media. During the Variety and CNN Town Hall, hosted at the University of Texas Austin, the actors started talking about the current issue of movie studios putting big action sequences at the beginning of movies, rather than letting tension build.
While both actors lamented the loss of audiences with better attention spans, Chalamet then said he did understand the reasoning, partly, saying: “Some people want to be entertained quickly. I’m really right in the middle, because I admire people [saying], ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. We gotta keep this genre alive.’”
Somewhat jokingly, Chalamet elaborated, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore’ — all respect to the ballet and opera people out there.”
In the days since the clip went viral, the “Marty Supreme” Academy Award nominee, has faced criticism from multiple fronts and from some of the world’s most prestigious opera and ballet houses.
The Metropolitan Opera, The Paris Opera, and Royal Ballet and Opera all tagged the actor in various call-out posts. New York City Ballet principal dancer Megan Fairchild took the 30 year-old to task, saying he couldn’t possibly “pursue these Olympic-level artistic fields in the first place.”
Seattle Opera took the Chala-melee a step further this weekend, posting a new promotion directly tied to the incident. In its post, the Washington-based opera house wrote: “All we’ve got to say is… use promo code ‘TIMOTHEE’ to save 14% off select seats for ‘Carmen,’ through this weekend only. Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too 💃 See you at the opera!”
So far, Chalamet has not released a statement to the backlash.
The 98th Academy Awards will be held March 15 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Chalamet will vie for the Best Actor award against fellow nominees Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”), Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”), Ethan Hawke (“Blue Moon”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“One Battle After Another”).
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