Timothée Chalamet’s weird habit of scathingly dragging opera and ballet keeps resurfacing

Timothée Chalamet is being called out by people in the performing arts world after comments where he suggested people simply don’t care about ballet or opera anymore.

The actor made the comments during a conversation with Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas, while discussing the future of cinema.

Ok I did not hear this. This sucks pic.twitter.com/O2ZW26zHrb

— Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) March 5, 2026

“I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.’”, Chalamet said.

He then quickly added: “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there”.

And even he seemed to realise the comment might not land well, joking: “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”

The comments quickly sparked backlash online, with actors and arts organisations pushing back. Jamie Lee Curtis even questioned the whole situation on Instagram, writing: “Why are any artists taking shots at any other artists?”

The drama has only grown after people realised this… isn’t the first time Chalamet has said something like this.

He compared movies becoming like ‘outdated’ opera

Appearing on The Graham Norton Show in 2019, Chalamet said he used to worry cinema could become irrelevant in the same way he sees opera.

“I love movies, I love acting, I love going to the movies, and I was kind of getting scared when I was younger that maybe it was becoming like opera or something, like an outdated art form or something.”

mind u this isn’t even his first time saying this 😭 https://t.co/ujw1Ok3mYt pic.twitter.com/LXHDJ5s0Bm

— ☆ (@BALUCIAGA) March 9, 2026

Most Read

You can now watch Jeffrey Epstein’s disturbing private videos on ‘JeffTube’ – here’s how

The wages the Love Is Blind season 10 cast made in jobs before the show reveal biggest earners

Shocking 911 call reveals hour-long highway chase with Britney Spears before DUI arrest

He called opera and ballet ‘a dying art form’

Later that same year during promotion for The King, he again suggested those art forms were fading away.

“You start working on movies and you start acting, and I start to get the sense that opera or ballet or something is kind of a dying art form.”

The comments got even more awkward

What makes the whole thing slightly more uncomfortable is Chalamet’s personal connection to ballet.

While promoting Marty Supreme last year, he spoke about how closely tied his family is to the New York City Ballet.

“I was always backstage at the New York city ballet. My grandma worked at the New York city ballet, my mother worked at the New York city ballet, and my sister danced there, so I grew up dreaming big backstage at the Koch theatre in New York, you know. I had to dream big.”

Because of that history, some people think the repeated comments feel especially dismissive.

One person wrote on X: “I could never respect an ‘artist’ who prides themself on being one of the greats of their craft while disparaging other mediums… ew…”

Meanwhile, Seattle Opera decided to take the whole situation less seriously and turned it into a promo for an upcoming production of Carmen.

Posting on Instagram, the company joked: “All we have 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.”

For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.

Featured image credit: CNN, BBC