Actors such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Meryl Streep, and Denzel Washington have defined themselves as royalty in the past generation of Hollywood. They’ve taken on major roles and have earned respect among the public. Rising stars have begun to make a name for themselves within the industry, one of the most popular being Timothée Chalamet. He’s taken the world by storm, appearing in massive films like Willy Wonka and the Dune franchise along with cinematic masterpieces like Call Me by Your Name, Little Women, and Lady bird. Additionally he’s maintained a “cool boy” persona and become a very popular celebrity crush amongst the teenage population.
Most recently, Chalamet was working overtime on marketing and the press tour for his newest project, Marty Supreme. The hype around the movie was escalating, and the film’s overall reaction from the public was incredibly positive. All that remained was deciding Marty Supreme‘s fate at the Oscars. With the hopes of winning Best Picture and Timothée Chalamet to win Best Actor, the film experienced a losing streak in these categories.
This high became short lived only weeks before the award night when his opinions on the ballet and theater community received major backlash. While being interviewed by his former costar Matthew McConaughey, Timothée Chalamet expressed the pressure to be a part of box office hits, saying, “I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive, we’ve gotta keep this genre alive’. Then followed this sentiment by telling McConaughey “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”
Watch the clip being referred to here: clip
This clip went viral and immediately caught the attention of his fan base and the Hollywood community as a whole. The night of the Oscars, Chalamet took many hits from the host, comedian Conan O’Brien, and peers who made comments about the importance of the Opera and ballet community.
This article isn’t to feed into “cancel culture,” but rather highlight the importance of stepping away from streaming platforms and getting out in the spring to support the many art forms offered to us amongst our community.
