The “Marty Supreme” star and Oscar hopeful has been weathering intense pushback to a set of recent, dismissive comments over the art forms.

Timothée Chalamet calls opera and ballet ‘dying’ art forms in resurfaced video amid recent controversy

The "Marty Supreme" star and Oscar hopeful has been weathering intense pushback to a set of recent, dismissive comments over the art forms.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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March 9, 2026 4:43 p.m. ET

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Timothée Chalamet at the Golden Globes in 2026. Credit:

JC Olivera/2026GG/Penske Media via Getty

- A recently resurfaced video from 2019 shows Timothée Chalamet calling opera and ballet "dying" art forms.

- The comments come in the wake of controversy Chalamet ignited after a February town hall, when he claimed that "no one cares" about either form of art anymore.

- Chalamet has been criticized by a wide variety of entertainers and institutions for the comments, from the Metropolitan Opera to Doja Cat.

Whatever hopes Timothée Chalamet may have harbored to leave the controversy over his recent ballet and opera comments behind have just been dashed.

The *Marty Supreme *star and Oscar hopeful sparked tension with a broad coalition of arts institutions and the performers that support them when he remarked during a February CNN town hall with Matthew McConaughey that he wouldn't want to be "working in ballet or opera" because "no one cares about this anymore." If anyone was offended by those remarks, he joked, it would probably only amount to a loss of "14 cents in viewership."

The backlash around Chalamet's comments hasn't died down, and a 2019 video of the actor that recently resurfaced on TikTok is poised to turn it up even further.

The video taken by TikTok user @thealienstookover in 2019 and reshared on Saturday shows Chalamet speaking at an event intended to promote his historical drama *The King*.

"No 'woe is me' thing, but you start working on movies, you start acting, pursuing your thing," Chalamet tells the crowd. "I started getting the sense it was maybe opera or ballet or something, it's kind of like a dying art form or something."

Then Chalamet cited *Call Me By Your Name *and *Ladybird*, the two films responsible for his transformation from working actor to sought-after star, which elicited a chorus of whoops from the audience.

* *has reached out to a representative for Chalamet for comment.

Where to watch 'Marty Supreme' (and when to expect it on HBO Max)

'View' cohosts slam 'vapid' Timothée Chalamet's anti-opera jab: 'Be careful, boy'

Those who work in ballet or opera have continued to react to Chalamet's initial comments.

New York City's Metropolitan Opera shared a video on March 6 highlighting the grueling work that goes into each elaborate production with the caption, "This one's for you," followed by Chalamet's official account tag.

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Timothée Chalamet in 'Marty Supreme'.

Several cohosts of *The View *and the musician Doja Cat also criticized Chalamet's comments on March 9.

Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and Sheryl Underwood took aim, with Hostin calling the 30-year-old actor "vapid [and] shallow," and Goldberg pointing out that both Chalamet's sister, Pauline, and mother, Nicole Flender, have dance backgrounds. "Be careful, my boy," she advised.

Doja, meanwhile, reminded her 27 million followers in a now-deleted video that "opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old." Despite her contention that "the industry is having a tough time," that "doesn’t mean people don’t care about it. People care."

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