Celebrities Call Out, React to Timothée Chalamet's Viral Statements About Opera & Ballet

After Timothée Chalamet alleged that "no one cares" about ballet and opera during a recent interview, the Metropolitan Opera, other theater companies and his actor peers weighed in on the remarks.

via: JJ

Timothée Chalamet has been in some hot water the past few days over comments he made about opera and ballet, which have gone incredibly viral.

The statements were shared during a discussion with Matthew McConaughey for a Variety and CNN Town Hall event.

“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive, we’ve gotta keep this genre alive,’ and another part of me feels like if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it,” Timothee said.

He then added, “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”

Timothée realized he probably shouldn’t have said that and added with a laugh, “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”

Over the last few days, celebrities and stars have reacted to Timothée‘s comments.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis apparently reposted an Instagram reel from creator Zach McNally, where he criticized Timothée‘s stance.

Jamie Lee has also reposted several ballet videos, seemingly to show her support for the medium.

Laura Benanti

Broadway star Laura Benanti commented on Variety’s Instagram post, writing, “It was the ‘all respect’ for me and the assumption that all the people offended by his callous ignorance would only amount to 14 cents worth of losses in ticket sales.”

On another post from the Metropolitan Opera, she also commented, “He’s gonna be singing a different tune when the live arts are all that’s left after AI takes over. Oh wait. He’s above singing a tune.”

Isabel Leonard

Isabel Leonard, an opera singer and Grammy winner, posted, “Honestly, I’m shocked that someone so seemingly successful can be so ineloquent and narrow-minded in his views about art while considering himself [an] artist as I would only imagine one would as an actor. To take cheap shots at fellow artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say. Shows a lot about his character. You don’t have to like all art, but only a weak person/artist feels the need to diminish, in fact, the very arts that would inspire those who are interested in slowing down, to do exactly that.”

Kameron N. Saunders

Kameron N. Saunders, a dancer known for his work on Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour, posted, “Yikes.”

King Princess

Musician King Princess simply wrote, “Boo.”

Eva Noblezada

Broadway star Eva Noblezada posted, “🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅.”

The Met Opera posted a video sharing “respect” for the opera and ballet workers out there.

Celebrities took to the comments on this post as well.

Dancer and choreographer Amar Smalls posted a video, reacting to Timothee’s statements.

In his video, Amar said the tickets for ballet and opera are extremely expensive because it’s high art.

“Ain’t nobody dressing up to see Wonka,” he said.

“Let’s talk about how you used black culture and you dressed up as Soulja Boy… to promote Marty Supreme,” he added.

Amar also said that once AI takes over, it won’t be able to replicate beautiful dance performances. But, it would possibly be able to redo Marty Supreme.

Comments from celebs on this video included…

Sam Taylor-Johnson – “🙌”

Ballet Star Misty Copeland – “🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾”

Eva Mendes – “I CARE!!! ❤️”

Poppy Delevingne – “🙌🏽.”

W. Kamau Bell – “But people LOOOOOOVE opinions of A-list actors.”

Helen Hunt – “Love that you said this.”

Pitch Perfect‘s Alexis Knapp – “The trashiness… wow. This guy is bazinga. High art FTW🩰 I grew up training in both it’s crazy to see this video. Ballet since 2 years old and opera since 11 🙌.”

Holland Taylor – “Love your mind!”