The opera and ballet worlds are firing back at Timothée Chalamet after the “Marty Supreme” star said on a “CNN and Variety Town Hall Event” that he doesn’t want to become a feature film like “ballet and opera,” which artists want to “keep going” even though “no one cares” anymore.
London’s Royal Ballet and Opera shared footage of their craftsmen and performers on Instagram on Friday in response to Chalamet. The post’s caption read: “Every night, thousands of people gather at the Royal Opera House for ballet and opera. For the music, for the storytelling, and for the pure magic of live performance. If you want to reconsider (Timothée Chalamet), our doors are open.”
English National Opera also invited Chalamet to perform on Friday via Instagram. The company posted a photo of Chalamet and captioned it with his viral quote, writing, “We’d love to change your mind-free tickets to us so you can fall in love with opera anytime.”
Colombian ballet dancer Fernando Montaño took a more pointed approach, sharing an official letter on Instagram explaining his thoughts on Chalamet’s comments. In it, he writes, “Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes humans can make is comparing themselves to others or comparing one form of expression to another. Comparisons rarely lead to true understanding; instead they limit growth and prevent people from developing their unique talents and perspectives.”
London-based dancer Anna Iriaho also wrote a personal message to Chalamet. “Only insecure artists destroy another field to elevate their own,” she wrote on Instagram.
Even more ironically, Seattle Opera is offering 14% off tickets to its production of “Carmen” when you use the promo code “Timothée.”
A representative for Chalamet did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Chalamet told Matthew McConaughey that there are both sides to the debate about the decline in the popularity of movie theaters. He said the success of “serious movies” like Frankenstein shows audiences still want nuanced storytelling, but he also understands that “some people want to be entertained quickly.”
“I’m right in the middle of it, Matthew,” Chalamet said. “Because I respect people, and I’ve done that myself, to go on talk shows and say, ‘We’ve got to keep movie theaters alive. We’ve got to keep this genre alive.'” And there’s another part of me that feels like if people wanted to see it, like Barbie or Oppenheimer, they’d go out of their way to see it and be loud and proud about it. And I don’t want to work in ballet or opera or something like, “Hey, please keep this alive.” Even though it’s like no one cares anymore. I salute the people of ballet and opera. Ratings only dropped by 14 cents. ”
