Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a>, a Best Actor nominee for this week\u2019s Oscars, has found himself at the center of yet another cyclone of contention that swirled over the weekend. The actor, nominated for his performance in the Best Picture nominee Marty Supreme<\/a>, has dedicated the past several months to taking any chance he can get to promote the movie\u2014directed by Josh Safdie, loosely based on the real life of table tennis player Marty Reisman in 1952. Included among these activities\u2014which have literally taken him to new heights, including standing on top of both the Empire State Building<\/a> and the Sphere in Las Vegas<\/a>\u2014have been a number of interviews and conversations with journalists and fellow actors. In a recent public chat with Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet\u2019s former co-star in Interstellar, the two thespians ruminated on the future of the film industry. However, in doing so, Chalamet wound up making a dismissive comment that earned him the ire of the seemingly calmest people alive: ballet dancers and opera performers. This was just the final pointe shoe to drop after a monthslong buildup to take the actor down a peg in the run-up to the Academy Awards this Sunday. So just how did one off-ballerina-blush-colored joke earn him a reprimand from the chorus? Read on to find out.<\/p>\n What did Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet say, exactly? And when?<\/strong><\/p>\n Our story begins with a Feb. 21 conversation between Chalamet and McConaughey in the form of a \u201cTown Hall\u201d chat, organized by Variety and celebrity.land, at the University of Texas at Austin. When the full hourlong discussion<\/a> became available to stream online, it generated some viral clips, like one of Chalamet bringing up a video of McConaughey and his other former co-star, Austin Butler, talking really close to each other<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over this past weekend, though, a different segment of the conversation went viral. Though this bit was circulating online earlier, it wasn\u2019t until Seth Abramovitch, a journalist at the Hollywood Reporter, reposted the sound bite on X<\/a> on March 5 that it took off like a rocket. Abramovitch wrote \u201cOk, I did not hear this. This sucks,\u201d reposting a moment when McConaughey asks Chalamet if the young actor had noticed a trend of Hollywood expediting storytelling to account for low attention spans in moviegoers. McConaughey outlines Hollywood studios\u2019 fears that people won\u2019t watch movies if something doesn\u2019t immediately excite them, to which Chalamet responds:<\/p>\n I admire people\u2014and I\u2019ve done it myself, too, gone 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\u2014like Barbie, like Oppenheimer\u2014they\u2019re gonna go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it. And I don\u2019t wanna be working in ballet or opera, or things where it\u2019s like, Hey, keep this thing alive, even though it\u2019s like, No one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership \u2026 I just took shots for no reason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When McConaughey says he understands what Chalamet is trying to say, there\u2019s another pregnant pause before Chalamet awkwardly bursts into song as a joke.<\/p>\n Ok I did not hear this. This sucks pic.twitter.com\/O2ZW26zHrb<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) March 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Yikes. That sound bite doesn\u2019t come off well, even if there is a degree of truth to his larger point.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s pretty well known that some traditional Western art forms\u2014ballet, opera, classical music, etc.\u2014have been struggling financially for a while now. Reckoning with the reasons these disciplines suffer from low attendance compared to their counterparts in mass popular culture is a valid point to speak to<\/a>, certainly. But it is also easy to see how dismissing these art forms, even jokingly, as crafts that no one cares about would be offensive to the many people who do. It certainly doesn\u2019t help that Chalamet apparently recognized that he made an offhand offensive comment \u201cfor no reason,\u201d but didn\u2019t apologize, instead laughing awkwardly afterward. Unfortunately, what is being lost in the ire that this comment sparked are the really salient questions the two actors are trying to navigate, about how the current state of storytelling might cheapen the art form as a whole<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also, plenty of people are pointing out how interesting it is to hear Chalamet say this, considering he comes from a family of ballerinas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Wait\u2014he does?<\/strong><\/p>\n A few months ago, earlier in the promotional press run for Marty Supreme, Chalamet told an interviewer<\/a>: \u201cMy grandmother danced in the New York City Ballet, my mother danced in the New York City Ballet, my sister danced in the New York City Ballet. I grew up dreaming big backstage at the Koch Theater in New York.\u201d This family background could provide some context for how intimately familiar Chalamet would be with the dance medium\u2019s problems, though it doesn\u2019t necessarily excuse how dismissively he relayed them. This is particularly true considering that Marty Supreme has, in some ways, leaned on the ballet community for promo. When the film\u2019s marketing team mounted their \u201cDream Big\u201d campaign, the phrase being the film\u2019s tagline, they did so by getting a bunch of notable figures who have broken boundaries in their field to don the now-iconic Marty Supreme jackets<\/a>. One of the earliest celebrities tapped for this campaign was Misty Copeland<\/a>, the first African American female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.<\/p>\n However, the additional irony here is that this isn\u2019t the first time Chalamet has said something like this. Someone posted a compilation on X<\/a> that comprises clips of him from as early as 2019 speaking on his fears that cinema might become an \u201coutdated\u201d or \u201cdying art form\u201d like opera or ballet. It appears that this has been something of a talking point of his for years.<\/p>\n Has he or anyone else responded?<\/strong><\/p>\n Chalamet himself hasn\u2019t. In fact, somewhat hilariously, every new video of him that has surfaced since this scandal blew up over the weekend shows him completely ignoring the controversy while promoting Marty Supreme in China. He\u2019s too busy having fun overseas, facetiously serving tofu<\/a> in markets, playing Ping-Pong<\/a>, and dancing with the elderly<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though, there is one demographic that has responded: ballet and opera organizations, naturally. The Metropolitan Opera<\/a> posted a video to Instagram, directly tagging Chalamet, of some footage of all of the labor that makes their productions possible, with the caption \u201cAll respect to the opera (and ballet) people out there.\u201d The Los Angeles Opera<\/a> promoted their production of Akhnaten by shading Chalamet with an Instagram post captioned, \u201cSorry, @tchalamet<\/a>. We\u2019d offer you complimentary tickets to Akhnaten, but it\u2019s selling out. There are a few seats left to purchase if you hurry.\u201d The Paris Opera<\/a> posted a clip of their current production of Nixon in China with a caption that translates to: \u201cPlot twist: ping-pong also exists in opera.\u201d Some dancers with the New York City Ballet also responded, including Megan Fairchild<\/a> and Sara Mearns<\/a>. The Vienna State Opera took to the streets<\/a> to ask strangers if they care about opera. Other production companies, like the Royal Ballet and Opera<\/a>, have taken this moment as an opportunity to not only chide Chalamet for his comments, but to welcome him to see their productions.<\/p>\n In a way, Chalamet\u2019s comments actually brought some awareness to these so-called \u201cdying\u201d art forms by creating a talking point they could respond to and market on. And hopefully this can help them make some money. Some companies understand that, like the Seattle Opera<\/a>, which promoted a deal for their current production of Carmen that saved concertgoers 14 percent off select seats if they used the code \u201cTIMOTHEE.\u201d And support for these art forms has also come from unexpected places, like popular singer\/rapper Doja Cat<\/a>, who posted a video shaming Chalamet for his remarks<\/a>, and the hosts of The View<\/a>, one of whom called Chalamet \u201cvapid\u201d and \u201cshallow.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m surprised that this has blown up the way it has. But now that I think about it, it feels like Chalamet\u2019s name has been mired in a lot of controversy lately. Is that true or is that just me?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just you, though I should remind you that he\u2019s been in the press more generally lately due to his Oscars campaign. Still, it\u2019s the law of the net-based universe: Anything that gains massive popularity, despite publicists\u2019 best efforts, is certain to eventually have an online hate train follow. This awards season, Chalamet\u2019s choo-choo of chastisement began with some irritation over how he discussed his overly dedicated acting process, much to the chagrin of people who voiced that he was coming off as too pretentious, too actor-y<\/a>. Then, he embarked on a tour de force of a marketing campaign<\/a> for the film, one that birthed a streetwear fashion trend<\/a>, a collaboration with a prominent Black content creator<\/a>, and even a feature on a legitimate popular rap song<\/a> from a massive up-and-coming English rapper. Chalamet\u2019s toe-dipping into Black culture\u2014a habit that is not new to this season of his life<\/a> by any means\u2014earned some skeptical looks from Black onlookers, who accused him of temporarily putting on a \u201cwigga\u201d personality<\/a> to accumulate hype in order to sell tickets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n All of this, though it earned a few skeptical raised eyebrows, was ultimately fine \u2026 until the awards race positioned him against a beloved Black actor, Michael B. Jordan, as the two likely front-runners for Best Actor along the awards circuit. It was then that controversy started to bubble up alleging that awarding Chalamet for his performance\u2014one he was accused of cosplaying as a Black person to promote\u2014over an actual Black actor was racist. (That, itself, is a layered, thorny conversation that I\u2019ve already teased apart here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n In other words, the Chalamet controversy had already been snowballing downhill, and this ballet\/opera comment was merely fresh snow on the ground to add to the mass. But it\u2019s not surprising that this made people as irate as it did, not only because being annoyed with Chalamet seems to be a trendy enough outlook these days, but also because this is perhaps the first time Chalamet has \u201ctaken shots\u201d\u2014whether he meant to or not\u2014at the demographic that catapulted him to fame in the first place: women. Insulting ballet, specifically, a profession that is predominantly carried out by women and has meant something to the women of his own family, could easily feel like a slap in the face to the same group that uplifted Chalamet\u2019s performances in the queer and women-led films, like Call Me By Your Name and Little Women, that gave Chalamet his start. No matter how much he goes on ESPN\u2019s College GameDay or indulges in the bro-ification of the self<\/a> to promote his increasingly masculine roles, he can\u2019t erase his start as a heartthrob of the female gaze.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read More<\/b>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Speaking of the Chala-melee of this awards season, I\u2019ve been hearing murmurs about this kerfuffle costing him an Oscar. Is that true?<\/strong><\/p>\n She Went From Reality Star to Best Actress Front-Runner. She Deserves It All. It\u2019s not impossible that this whole issue could\u2019ve cost Chalamet a few votes, but it is unlikely, given the timing of it. The conversation has been up for a few weeks, but Ambramovitch\u2019s viral tweet was posted just a couple of hours before Oscars voting closed on March 5. The late timing, combined with the assumption that most Academy voters didn\u2019t wait until hours before the deadline to cast their ballots, makes it very unlikely that this whole scenario cost him many votes, if any (despite what Polymarket<\/a> and Kalshi<\/a> predictions might have you believe). This is, in many ways, different than the Jessie Buckley feline smear campaign<\/a> that emerged recently, which felt more like it was the work of some publicist twirling their mustache behind the scenes.<\/p>\n However, that doesn\u2019t mean that the backlash that has been building against Chalamet for some time now wouldn\u2019t have contributed to Chalamet\u2019s current lower odds of winning the little gold man. Currently, gold-standard awards prediction site Gold Derby<\/a> has the likelihood of Michael B. Jordan winning the award at a 53.7 percent chance, and Chalamet at a mere 32.2 percent chance.<\/p>\n Whether or not he does win, Chalamet will be fine. I agree with this tweet from culture journalist Caroline Siede<\/a> that predicts that once the actor grows his iconic curls back, people will calm down again\u2014something Siede funnily dubs \u201ca real Samson scenario.\u201d But she\u2019s maybe right, for reasons that hark back to my earlier point: Chalamet\u2019s feminine edge is what assuaged any of his pretentiousness and changed it into something else, something more mysterious and softer around the edges. He just needs to be in a movie helmed by a woman again and all will be well. Greta Gerwig, we need you!<\/span><\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/7afc91cd-0d50-4241-bc9a-d5fddb0ac57e.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&width=140\")
\n <\/div>\nIsaac Butler<\/h4>\n
How Is Timmy Chalamet Getting Away With It?<\/h3>\n
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\n <\/div>\nSam Adams<\/h4>\n
Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet Has Transformed His New Movie Release Into a Spectacle<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/2f8d72e7-fbf4-4b0b-b7b6-f87bd9ab1692.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&width=140\")
\n <\/div>\nLuke Winkie<\/h4>\n
He\u2019s Hollywood\u2019s Prettiest Boy. He\u2019s Also Its Biggest Bro.<\/h3>\n
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