And Toto, Timothy? Backlash mounts over Chalamet Snaps at opera and ballet | Timothée Chalamet

Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis added her disapproval of the chorus protesting Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet’s comments about the importance of opera and ballet.

The Marty Supreme star has sparked major backlash for his comments during a CNN/Variety video chat with Matthew McConaughey, which was recorded on February 24.

“I don’t want to do ballet or opera,” Chalamet told his Interstellar co-star. “Things that are like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.'”

The actor seemed to quickly realize his mistake, adding: “All due respect to all the ballet and opera people out there… I just lost 14 cents in viewership. Damn, I took pictures for no reason.”

On Friday, Broadway dancer and actor Zach McNally posted an Instagram story titled “Why does Timothée Chalamet shoot shots in opera and ballet?”

In the video, McNally asks: “Why would any artist photograph any other artist at that time?” [when] Artificial intelligence threatens literally all forms of art, with the exception of performing arts such as plays, ballets, operas, and musicals.

Over the weekend, Curtis reshared the story, and later posted clips from companies like the Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam. She followed that up by returning praise for Sinners, particularly its star Michael B. Jordan.

The Sinners star is now expected to win Best Actor on Sunday, narrowly edging out Chalamet, whose role as Marty Supreme has long dominated the awards race. But voting was closed on Thursday evening: after the video was published, but before the repercussions accumulated.

A video posted on Instagram by dancer and choreographer Ammar Smalls, in which he disparaged Chalamet’s back catalog compared to the elitist art forms he criticized, also garnered a lot of support.

“Tickets for opera and ballet are crazy expensive, because it’s such a high art. And no one dresses up to see Wonka,” Smalls said.

Director and artist Sam Taylor-Johnson, ballet star Misty Copeland and actor Holland Taylor were among those to voice their approval under the post, while Eva Mendes wrote: “I care!!! ❤️” and Helen Hunt added: “I love that you said that.”

Chalamet’s concerns about working in a populist art form appear to be long-standing. He said on The Graham Norton Show in 2019 that he “was kind of scared when I was younger than that maybe.” [cinema] It became like opera or something, like an outdated art form or something.

Later that year, he reiterated the concern, saying: “You start working in films and you start acting, and I start to feel that opera or ballet or whatever is a dying art form.”

Chalamet’s comments are all the more surprising because his mother, Nicole Flender, and grandmother, Enid Flender, were professional dancers, the latter in mid-century musicals and the former a ballet teacher for 25 years.

The actor referenced this family history while promoting Marty Supreme last year, saying, “I was always backstage at the New York City Ballet. My grandmother worked at the New York City Ballet, my mother worked at the New York City Ballet, and my sister danced there, so I grew up dreaming a lot backstage at the Koch Theater in New York, you know. I had to dream big.”

In an open letter published Friday, the principal of LaGuardia High School, where Chalamet was a student, wrote: “We know your heart, and we know you know better.”

Other professional bodies that have criticized Chalamet include the Royal Opera and Ballet in London, the English National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Los Angeles Opera, and the Seattle Opera.

Seattle Opera turned the controversy into a promotion for its latest production, posting on Instagram: “All we have to say is use promo code TIMOTHEE to save 14% off select seats for Carmen, this weekend only. Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too.”