While Timothée Chalamet has been met with tomatoes over his dismissive comments about live performance, several troupes are extending an olive branch.
After the 4x Oscar nominee quipped that “no one cares” about performance arts like ballet and opera, he’s been publicly inundated with both backlash and invitations to see several different troupes perform.
“This one’s for you, @tchalamet…” the Metropolitan Opera captioned a video montage of the work that goes into one of its productions.
The English National Opera offered “free tickets on us to help you fall back in love with opera anytime,” writing on Instagram, “This is your official invitation. Let’s see if we can change your mind.”
The Royal Ballet & Opera boasted “thousands of people” pack their venue every night, “For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance.”
“If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open,” they added.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Opera had a cheeky response, using the actor’s name as a promo code for its production of Carmen. “All we’ve got to say is… use promo code TIMOTHEE to save 14% off select seats for Carmen, through this weekend only. Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too. See you at the opera!” they wrote.
Chalamet previously remarked to Matthew McConaughey during ‘A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event‘ that “no one cares about [opera or ballet] anymore,” prompting swift backlash from the performing arts community.
“I’m really right in the middle, Matthew,” he said. “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.”
Chalamet added, “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.”