French-American actor, Timothée Chalamet.
Until recently, Timothée Chalamet was Hollywood’s “darling” and one of the favorites to win the Oscar for best actor next Sunday, the 15th. But will the recent negative wave against the French-American due to stop him again?
When Chalamet recently said that “nobody wants to know anymore” of ballet or opera, I certainly didn’t expect people to care enough about the comment to generate so much controversy. But he was wrong.
Many people have strong opinions about ballet and opera, and even more so about Chalamet himself.
“He’s a complete idiot,” broadcaster and theater and arts critic Ian Brown told BBC Radio London on Saturday. “I find it simply ridiculous and I suspect this may still haunt him.”
Meanwhile, pop culture podcast The Spill titled its new episode “Why We’re Officially Done With Timothée Chalamet” (“Why We’re Officially Done With Timothée Chalamet”) and posed the question: “Has the Timothée era officially come to an abrupt end?”
“Easy attacks”
In a lengthy interview last month with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, who plays his father in the 2014 film Interstellar, Chalamet was apparently seeking to argue that he wouldn’t want to be making movies if the craft became a niche, minority-oriented pursuit.
“I don’t want to work in ballet or opera or things like that, where you say, ‘Let’s keep this alive, even if no one else wants to know about it,’” he said.
“All due respect to people in ballet and opera,” he added quickly, realizing how his words might be received. “I just lost ’14 cents’ in audience. Damn, I just criticized unnecessarily.”
Ballet and opera artists and companies reacted in defense of both arts.
“Making easy attacks against other artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say,” responded American opera singer Isabel Leonard. “That says a lot about his character.”
Some reacted with class. Seattle Opera, for example, offered 14% off tickets to the opera Carmen with the promo code TIMOTHEE. “Timmy, you can use it too,” they said.
Chalamet… are you right?
Opera and ballet have loyal audiences, but there may be some substance to the point Chalamet makes.
An official survey on the frequency of cultural events in the United States, carried out every five years, showed that only 0.7% of the population went to the opera at least once in 2021a drop compared to the 2.2% recorded in 2017. Ballet and other live dance shows fell from 8.2% to 4.7% in the same period.
“Of course everyone was outraged because everyone is offended by every little thing,” Sasha Stone said on Awards Daily, as cited by , but Chalamet is “100% right.”
“Smear campaign”
While some have accused Chalamet of targeting softer cultural targets, he can speak with some knowledge — the actor has spoken admiringly about his grandmother, mother and sister, all of whom were dancers.
The timing of the statements would also have contributed to the negative reaction, as the Oscar ceremony is close and Chalamet is competing for the best actor award for the film Marty Supreme (2025).
Chalamet made the comments more than two weeks ago, but they began attracting attention early last week, and the backlash grew over the days. The fact that all of this coincided with the end of Oscar voting may or may not have been a coincidence. Club Chalamet, the actor’s biggest fan account on Instagram, stated that it was a “smear campaign” to harm your chances of winning the prize.
The young actor competes with names like Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).
Controversy losing steam?
Alex Ritman, London bureau chief for Variety magazine, says the controversy peaked after Oscar voting closed on Thursday and is unlikely to have “a major impact” on the outcome.
Even so, the tide was already turning against Chalamet in the Oscar race after he failed to win two of the major recent preparatory awards: the Bafta and the Actors Awards.
“It all depends on the momentum with which you enter the final stretch and how things are shaping up”, says Ritman. “He was a clear favorite for a long time, and then when all the awards start happening one after the other, you get a clearer sense of the bigger picture.”
Chalamet he was close to becoming the youngest Oscar winner for best actor last year for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Stranger and, having recently turned 30, he would be the second youngest winner if he lifts the statuette this weekend.
Rehna Azim, awards editor at Movie Marker, is on “Team Timothée.”
“I think it’s good that Timothée said something interesting, rather than the same neutral, safe answers that many actors give,” he says. “I think he should still win the Oscar. I think he deserves it.”
“He’s very good with his fans, he’s a great actor and he continues to be an interesting actor — and I would hate to see that end because some people on the Internet decided to criticize him, since it’s become fashionable now.”
When it comes to the Oscars, front-runners tend to attract more scrutiny than any other candidate.
Irish actress Jessie Buckley, seen as the clear favorite to win best actress for Hamnet, recently tried to downplay a minor controversy after saying she had threatened to get rid of her cats because they pooped on her pillow.
Both “almost scandals” are simply “a sign that the Oscar season is too long”, suggests Michael Schulman, author of the 2023 book Oscar Wars.
“Everyone has had too many opportunities to get in front of a microphone and say whatever comes to mind, and we’re running out of things to talk about.”
Not everything that becomes controversial during the Oscar race is the result of dirty maneuvers, Schulman believes. “I don’t think Oscar strategists are that powerful.”
Chalamet “deserves an Oscar,” adds Schulman, but a lot of people “have been a little disappointed in him over the last few weeks,” even before the current controversy.
“I think this has a lot to do with the image he was presenting to promote the film, that of an immature young man full of arrogance,” says Schulman.
“It was funny and it worked really well to get audiences out to the movies, but there was a weird transition into awards season where he tried to adopt a more reverent, humble tone. I just think people were already attached to his arrogant image in Marty Supreme.”
“Now he gives off the image of an arrogant young man, and no one is going to rush to give the best actor award to someone young and obnoxious. So I guess things aren’t going exactly as he would like.”
Although Schulman believes that the image adopted by Chalamet during the Marty Supreme promotional tour was largely a representation, it left many people confused.
