Timothée Chalamet’s remarks during “A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event” that he wasn’t interested in a theatrical production to wrap up like a “ballet or opera,” where artists want to “keep this thing alive” even though “no one cares” about it anymore, have sparked backlash from the opera and ballet spheres.
In an apparent reaction to Chalamet, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera posted video of their artists and performers on Instagram on Friday. “Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance. If you’d like to reconsider, [Timothée Chalamet], our doors are open,” the post’s prescription stated.
Fernando Montaño, a Colombian ballet dancer, responded to Chalamet’s remark with a more direct letter posted on Instagram. He wrote in it, “Perhaps one of the greatest mistakes human beings can make is to compare themselves with others, or to compare one form of expression with another. Comparison rarely allows true understanding; instead, it limits growth and prevents people from developing their own talents and perspectives.”
Chalamet informed Matthew McConaughey, in full, that he understands all sides of the debate on the declining appeal of movie theaters. Although he acknowledges that “some people want to be entertained and quickly,” he claimed that the success of a “serious movie” like “Frankenstein” demonstrates that viewers still yearn for complex narratives.
“I’m really right in the middle, Matthew,” Chalamet said. “Cause I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, [who] go on a talk show and go, ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters 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 and be loud and proud about it. And I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive.’ Even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership.”
