Has Timothée Chalamet, Hollywood’s golden boy, lost his shine?

Timothée Chalamet was, until very recently, Hollywood’s golden boy and one of the favorites to win an Oscar this weekend. So does the negative reactions he faced go beyond his opinions on ballet and opera?

When Chalamet recently said that “no one cares” about ballet or opera anymore, he clearly didn’t expect people to care enough about his remarks to spark an outcry. How wrong he was.

It turns out that many people have very strong feelings about ballet and opera, but even more so about Chalamet himself.

“He’s an absolute fool,” theater critic and arts broadcaster Ian Brown told BBC Radio London on Saturday. “I just think he’s being ridiculous, and I suspect it will come back to haunt him.”

Meanwhile, pop culture podcast The Spill titled his new episode “Why are we officially done with Timothée Chalamet”, and asked the question: “Is the Timothée era officially over?”

“Cheap photos”

Chalamet’s comments may have been misjudged, but his crimes pale in comparison to some of the wrongdoings in Hollywood over the years.

In a lengthy interview last month with Matthew McConaughey, his on-screen father in 2014’s Interstellar, Chalamet was apparently trying to make it clear that he didn’t want filmmaking to become a minority activity.

“I don’t want to work in ballet or opera or things where you’re like, ‘Keep this thing alive even if no one cares about it anymore,'” he said.

“All respect to the ballet and opera people,” he added hastily, realizing how his words might be criticized. “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. Damn, I just took pictures for no reason.”

Ballet and opera artists and companies mounted a strong defense.

“The fact that he criticizes other artists in this interview speaks volumes about anything else he could say,” responded American opera singer Isabel Leonard. “It shows a lot about his character.”

Some have also cleverly capitalized on this attention, with Seattle Opera offering 14% off tickets to Carmen using promo code TIMOTHEE. “Timmy, you can use that too,” they said.

Opera and ballet have devoted audiences, but Chalamet’s argument may have some merit.

An official survey of arts attendance in the United Statescarried out every five years, showed that only 0.7% of the population went to the opera at least once in 2022, compared to 2.2% in 2017. Ballet and other live dancing declined from 8.2% to 4.7% over the same period.

Although some have accused Chalamet of hitting, he could speak with knowledge: he once spoke enthusiastically about the fact that his grandmother, mother and sister were all dancers.

The timing of his comments likely played a role in the backlash, with the Oscars approaching and Chalamet’s Best Actor nomination for Marty Supreme.

His remarks started attracting attention early last weekand the reaction snowballed over the week. That this coincided with the end of Oscar voting may not have been a coincidence. Club Chalamethis largest fan account, claimed it was a “smear campaign” aimed at hurting his chances.

Lose your momentum

Variety’s London bureau chief, Alex Ritman, said the controversy peaked after Oscar voting closed and was therefore unlikely to have “a big impact” on the outcome.

However, the tide was already turning against Chalamet in the Oscar race after he failed to win two of the biggest and most recent prep awards – at the Baftas and the Actors Awards.

“It’s about the momentum when you get into that last stage and you see how the tea leaves are falling,” says Ritman. “It’s obviously been a favorite for a very long time, and then when all the different awards shows start coming one after the other, you get a feel for the lay of the land.”

Rehna Azim, awards editor for Movie Marker magazine, is part of “Team Timothée.”

“I think it’s good that Timothée said something interesting instead of the same bland, safe answers that a lot of actors give,” she says. “I think he should still get his Oscar. I think he deserves it.

“He’s really good to his fans, he’s a great actor, and I think he’s still an interesting actor – and I would hate to see that killed because some people on the Internet are picking on him, because it’s cool to pick on him.”

When it comes to the Oscars, the presumptive favorites often get more attention than anyone else.

Irish actress Jessie Buckley, considered a sure shot for the best actress title for Hamnet, recently tried to repair the damage caused by a minor controversy after she said she threatened to get rid of pet cats because they defecated on her pillow.

The two semi-scandals are simply “a sign that Oscar season has gone on too long,” suggests Michael Schulman, author of Oscar Wars.

“Everyone has had too many opportunities to get in front of a microphone to talk about what’s on their mind, and we’re running out of things to say.”

Not everything that explodes during the Oscar race is due to dirty tricks, he believes. “I don’t think Oscar strategists are that powerful.”

Chalamet “deserves an Oscar,” Schulman adds, but a lot of people “have gotten a little bitter at him in the last few weeks,” even before the current controversy.

“I think it had a lot to do with the character he presented to sell the film, that of this insensitive, swaggering young man.

“It was funny, and it got people going to see the movie with great success, but there was an awkward transition into awards season where he was trying to play the reverend and the humble, and I think people had already become attached to Marty Supreme’s kid character.

“So now he comes across as young and obnoxious, and no one is going to rush to give a young and obnoxious best actor award. So I don’t think it turned out well for him.”

Although Schulman believes Chalamet’s character during Marty Supreme’s press tour was primarily an act, it left other people confused.

Is he really a brash celebrity who dates reality TV stars, or a humble and serious actor?

Or maybe both: an excellent, serious actor who comes across as obnoxious when he makes no secret of his desire to win an Oscar and become “one of the greats”, and who dates a reality TV star, Kylie Jenner, and is very good at stunts to sell his films.

Other factors might actually have more of a say in the Oscar race than comments about opera and ballet – such as unease over reports that a 17-year-old girl had been cast as a sex worker in a previous film by Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie. The director would not have known his age until after filming the scene.

There was also a surge of support for Sinners, particularly after the Baftas, following which the film’s stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were praised for their composure when a Tourette’s guest unintentionally shouted a racist slur while they were on stage.

“But he could still win,” Schulman says.