If you've been anywhere near the internet lately you've like heard about the uproar over Timothée Chalamet's recent comments about how "no one cares" about ballet and opera.
The comments were not taken kindly, and now the ire has reached such a fever pitch it even made it onto Jeopardy!—or the gameshow's Instagram, at least.
The show made a series of subtle social media digs at the actor by posting old clips from the show in which the category was "Ballet & Opera."
On Instagram, the gameshow posted the clip, full of clues about iconic ballet dancers like Vaslav Nijinsky and classic operas like Madame Butterfly, with the caption:
"NOBODY @ HIM"
And just in case there was confusion about who the "him" in question is, the game show added "#timotheechalamet" to the caption too. Savage.
Chalamet's off-the-cuff comments, smack in the middle of his Oscar campaign for Marty Supreme, a film about the thriving art of *checks notes* ping pong, seemed intended to speak to the ways the arts are struggling in today's world.
But they couldn't have been more poorly worded.
The comments came during an interview with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey as part of a Variety & CNN town hall at the University of Austin, in which Chalamet 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 things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore.’"
Seeming to realize what he'd just done, Chalamet quickly added:
"All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there."
The optics—gazillionaire Oscar nominee (who's dating a billionaire, no less) deriding art forms as something "no one cares about"—could not possibly have been worse.
On YouTube, Jeopardy! was even more pointed in its criticism, calling the actor out by name.
- YouTubeyoutube.com
Its caption read:
“Timothée Hates to See this Category Coming 👀”
On social media, people couldn't stop laughing about Jeopardy!'s Chalamet shade.
The blowback over Chalamet's comments hasn't seemed to slow down, especially after several opera and ballet companies across the country put out electrifying videos referencing his comments that highlight not only how much work goes into their art, but how beloved it is by their audiences.
Many have speculated that Chalamet's comments may have killed his Marty Supreme Oscar campaign for Best Actor.
That's unlikely to happen, as Oscar voting closed March 5, before the virality of his comments really hit its fever pitch. Chalamet is still considered the Best Actor frontrunner.
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