Playbill: Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet set the opera and ballet worlds abuzz recently when, in an interview for Variety and CNN, he insinuated that "no one cares" about the art forms. The actor—whose grandmother, mother, and sister were ballerinas—is currently nominated for his performance in Marty Supreme.
4 comments:
I find this whole debacle pretty funny, because ultimately it is just one guy’s opinion on a massive arts industry. I do think what deserves focus is the way the arts community as a whole has rallied around ballet and opera in response. I think on the operas’ and ballets’ ends it is clear their responses are for publicity and social media above anything. The Metropolitan Opera mentions its recent shows in their hilarious post in response to Chalamet. Sara Mearns took it as a chance to offer a collaboration with the actor. I think some of these responses are genuine, but still in a way that adds their voices to this wave of social media focus on ballet and opera. Ultimately, as with anything on social media, there should be a focus on what people are gaining by putting these opinions out there, because almost nothing that is posted isn’t thought through.
I can’t lie, I kind of find this whole thing rather stupid. I’ve never particularly been a fan of Timothe Chalamet. I think he's a pretty good actor, but I don’t really care about him at all. And I mean, yeah, I definitely think he should maybe have thought a little more through before he said this. It seems like he didn’t entirely mean offense or to dis opera or ballet, but at the end of the day, he did kinda dismiss other people’s art forms as inferior, and that's not cool. The people who do opera and ballet are so incredibly talented and committed to their art, and I find it so impressive what they do. The internet has then taken this and run with it, and I feel like it’s become a way bigger thing than it needs to be. Some of the jokes opera and ballet companies have been making are so funny though.
I agree with everyone else in the comments right now that this entire thing is kind of stupid. it's one guy with an opinion that people disagree with and that's fine. do I think that his statement is slightly ignorant and completely ignores the fact that ballet and Opera or two essential parts of how his career exists today? sure. Do I think that means he doesn't deserve to have that opinion? No, he can think whatever he wants. If anything, I actually think this is something that can benefit ballet and Opera. I feel like I've seen so many opera and ballet companies kind of taking advantage of this as a social media marketing campaign which I think can bring some really great exposure to Opera and ballet. I do think he kind of has a point in the fact that viewership for both of these are down compared to the past and it might be worth looking into why, but I also don't think that discredits either as an art. public figures are people too, we can't forget that. They're going to say stupid things but that's part of being human .
I find this whole controversy to be quite stupid. I also find Timothee Chalamet to be a bit of an ignorant person generally. I understand where he’s coming from, in the sense that Ballet and Opera are not really cared about by the general public in the United States, and film remains a more dominant art form, though sometimes calling film art is a stretch, when it is made to fill a particular time slot to satisfy a studio executive. But I wouldn’t say that just because Ballet and Opera are enjoyed by a minority of the American public that they are on life support, when productions continue to be mounted with greater artistic capability than Timothee Chalamet could ever muster alone. It’s also annoying to watch because theatre, ballet, and opera are foundational to the art of filmmaking. Like, it’s one thing to recognize that the American public cares less about certain art forms, and it's another thing to insult them.
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