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The Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis has added her disapproval to the chorus protesting against Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet’s comments about the relevance of opera and ballet.
The star of Marty Supreme has attracted considerable backlash for his remarks during a CNN/Variety video conversation with Matthew McConaughey, which was recorded on 24 February.
“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera,” Chalamet told his Interstellar co-star. “Things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this any more.’”
The actor appeared to swiftly realise his misstep, adding: “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there ... I just lost 14 cents in viewership. Damn, I just took shots for no reason.”
On Friday, Broadway dancer and actor Zach McNally posted a story on Instagram entitled “Why is Timothée Chalamet taking shots at opera and ballet?”
In the video, McNally asks: “Why are any artists taking shots at any other artist in the time [when] artificial intelligence threatens literally all art forms, except performing art like plays, ballets and operas and musicals.”
Over the weekend, the story was reshared by Curtis, who then posted clips from companies such as Amsterdam’s Nationale Opera & Ballet. She followed this by resharing praise for Sinners, in particular its star Michael B Jordan.
The Sinners star is now tipped to win the best actor award this Sunday, narrowly beating Chalamet, whose turn in Marty Supreme long dominated the awards race. Voting closed on Thursday evening, however: after the video had been published, but before the fallout had gathered.
A video posted to Instagram by dancer and choreographer Amar Smalls, in which he disparaged Chalamet’s back catalogue in comparison with the elite artforms he had criticised, has also won much support.
“The tickets to the opera and ballet are mad expensive,” said Smalls, “because it’s high art. Ain’t nobody dressing up to see Wonka.”
The director and artist Sam Taylor-Johnson, ballet star Misty Copeland and actor Holland Taylor were among those expressing agreement beneath the post, while Eva Mendes wrote “I CARE!!! ❤️” and Helen Hunt added “Love that you said this.”
Chalamet’s concerns over working in a populist artform appear longstanding. Appearing on The Graham Norton Show in 2019, he said he “was kind of getting scared when I was younger that maybe [cinema] was becoming like opera or something, like an outdated art form or something.”
Later that year, he reiterated the anxiety, saying: “You start working on movies and you start acting, and I start to get the sense that opera or ballet or something is kind of a dying art form.”
Chalamet’s comments are the more surprising because both his mother, Nicole Flender and grandmother, Enid Flender, were both professional dancers, the latter in mid-century musicals and the former a ballet teacher for 25 years.
The actor referenced this family history promoting Marty Supreme last year, saying: “I was always backstage at the New York city ballet. My grandma 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 big backstage at the Koch theatre in New York, you know. I had to dream big.”
In an open letter published on 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 who have criticised Chalamet include London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, the English National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Los Angeles Opera and the Seattle Opera.
The Seattle Opera turned the controversy into a promotion for their latest production, posting on Instagram: “All we have got to say is use promo code TIMOTHEE to save 14% off select seats for Carmen, through this weekend only. Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too.”
