Topics: Timothee Chalamet , Film and TV, Celebrity
The ballet and opera communities have hit back at Timothée Chalamet over comments the Marty Supreme star made about the form of entertainment.
Chalamet appeared on the CNN & Variety Town Hall Event last month and spoke with Matthew McConaughey about the popularity of movie theatres amid its uncertain future in the medium.
While the Wonka star listed the release of Frankenstein as an example of a 'serious movie' that can have success, he expressed feeling that audiences 'want to be entertained and quickly'.
This lead to some controversial comments about ballet and opera and people just generally having little interest in it.
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Chalamet explained: "I’m really right in the middle, Matthew. Cause I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, [who] go 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, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re gonna go see it and go out of their way and be loud and proud about it.
"And I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive.’ Even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership."
Companies in ballet and opera have since hit back at the actor's comments, including the English National Opera who have invited Chalamet to a performance in the future.
Penning an open invitation on Instagram, they wrote: "We’d love to change your mind- free tickets on us to help you fall back in love with opera anytime xoxo."
London’s Royal Ballet and Opera also took to Instagram to touch on Chalamet's comments, as they posted a video montage of their performances with the words 'We care'.
They captioned the post with: "Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance.
"If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open."
The Seattle Opera have gone down a different route to get their point across by offering a 14 percent promotional offer on their production of 'Carmen'. How you claim the offer you ask? Well, by using code 'Timothée' at checkout.
UNILAD has reached out to Chalamet's representatives for comment.
