TIMOTHEE CHALAMET CONTROVERSY
As a former ballet dancer, (not professionally, of course, but my whole life, and even as a Dance Major at UCLA until I ruined my knee,) you would think that I would be among the gazillions who have piled on Timothee Chalamet. But I’m far from that—I’m actually against all these holier-than-thou people who have been dreadful to, and about, the guy. The inane pre-Oscars “Stop Timmy” movement was just insane. Grown-ups in show business basically made him their “cootie,” which I’ll explain in a minute. (And by the way, I’m not a Timothee Chalamet fan—I’m simply a fan of fairness and humanity.)
Matthew McConaughey and Timothee Chalamet doing the “town hall” where the controversy began.
So I’m here to break it all down for you. At the end of February, Timothee was doing a “town hall” discussion with Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas at Austin. I don’t quite know the purpose of it, but I’m assuming it was just one piece of the publicity puzzle for his Oscar run at Best Actor for his nominated starring role in Marty Supreme.
The two guys were talking about that they hoped that people would still choose to see films in actual theaters, as opposed to on TV, computers, or phones. Timothee said, “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.’ I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive,’ even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore.” He said that last part lightheartedly. Then he quickly added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost fourteen cents in viewership. I’m taking shots for no reason.”
Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme.
It definitely was not smart to say that. It was one stupid statement, but it was said with no malice. He’s thirty-years-old, and that’s his opinion of arts that he and most likely his pals, (who include the very uncultured Kardashian-Jenners,) don’t care about, so he erroneously think they’re dying. And remember—he was talking to college kids that day!
Chalamet’s mother and sister had both attended the School of American Ballet, and his grandma was actually a dancer with the New York City Ballet. So I doubt he hates the art. As he stated, he just thinks that no one cares about it anymore.
As a matter of fact, in my own life, growing up, (including up through my twenties!,) I honestly never knew anyone else who loved ballet!!! Never. Girls I danced with loved dancing themselves, but outside of my mother, there was not one person I ever met back then who cared even one whit about the art. And even now, out of my plethora of pals, I have only a couple who want to see it. As a matter of fact, even as a dance major at prestigious UCLA, out of a class of two hundred incoming dancers, only two of us were ballerinas—everyone else was a contemporary, (or modern,) dancer! Even my fellow dancers made fun of ballet! Crazy.
And to this day, I don’t get opera, except for maybe one-off songs that are sort-of in the genre, such as Time To Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli. Actually, I’ve always loved a lot of the music from famous operas, and even some of the full songs. But I could not sit through a full opera, especially because they’re all so depressing. (Operettas are the happy ones, where nobody dies at the end.) And even though I fully appreciate the mad talent that all opera singers possess, I really do understand why a young-ish guy would consider it to be dying art.
Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, for which he did most of his own amazing ping-pong playing!
So I’m not against Timothee—I’m totally against all those people who have been ragging on him for voicing his opinion, as erroneous as it might be. So none of them have ever had an unpopular stance, even privately?
To me, all those peeps are just like the mean kids at school. I assume that in every elementary school classroom, (and, very sadly, also many high school ones,) there are rotten people like that, and it’s disgusting. In my sixth grade class, someone decided that we should all call E.S. the “cootie.” It was horrible. And heartbreaking. Of course I would not do that, and one day, when the bow on the back of her dress got undone, I re-tied it for her. She started crying, and to this day, I still hear her saying, “I can’t believe you’re not scared to touch me,” and it breaks my heart. When I think of that, I always hope that E.S. has the happiest life. (And strangely, the idiot who began the “cootie” pointing was actually a very creepy nerd!)
Getting back to these current idiots who decided they’d try to ruin Timothee Chalamet’s life and career because he thinks that nobody cares about ballet and opera—what is wrong with them??? His dislike of anything should not have ruled him out of winning a deserved Academy Award. As I tweeted right before the show, “Regardless of who I think deserves to win the Oscar for Best Actor, all winners should be voted on for the merit of their work, not if they said something stupid leading up to the vote. I would not want to win by default. The world is crazy now. Ballet has always been my favorite art form, but I can’t get angry at a young ’un for thinking it’s a dying art.”
As to the people who gleefully celebrated that he lost what was supposed to be his Oscar to the absolutely undeserving Michael B. Jordan, (who played twins in Sinners, but there was absolutely no distinction between the two,) you should be proud of yourselves. And how does that make your life better???
Timothee Chalamet sitting in the front row at the Oscars, enjoying jokes made at his own expense, accompanied by his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner.
I really hope that, with a bit of hindsight, some of those creeps see the error of their ways, and would not have been so mean to begin with, except that they were emboldened by the pack mentality.
Timothee was a great sport to sit there in the first row of the audience, and laugh at jokes about his faux pas, and act happy for Michael; he was basically resigned to the outcome. I never cared about the kid before, but now I have respect for him.
And to remind everyone of what happened with the Oscars last year. Transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón, who starred in and as Emilia Pérez, became reviled for old very disturbing discriminatory tweets after she had already been nominated for many acting awards, including the Oscar. So she didn’t even show up to the ceremony. What she had said was a zillion times worse than anything Timothee said.
I do feel awful for Timothee, but it is a lesson to everyone in show biz. And that is that there’s a fine line between doing the necessary publicity and keeping your true thoughts to yourself. Just keep everything light, laud every single person and activity that you can, and then politely shut it down.
This how the new Dune movie is being promoted. Will they change it now because of all the high-and-mighty idiots?
So the many questions now are: Is Warner Bros. going to cancel their big film Dune: Part Three because of the Chalamet backlash??? Or are they going to be normal and let the controversy die down? And perhaps not send Timothee out to do publicity for the movie?
And to those of you who were soooo offended by someone thinking that no one cares about ballet and opera, when was the last time you went to performances of those arts? And did you spend your own hard-earned money on the always-expensive tickets?
And most importantly, is your life better now that Timothee Chalamet didn’t win the Oscar, that wasn’t even guaranteed to him, anyway? I have a serious feeling that it is not.
