Overview
- During a Feb. 24 Variety/CNN town hall with Matthew McConaughey, Chalamet said he wouldn’t want to work in ballet or opera because “no one cares about this anymore,” then immediately joked that he had “lost 14 cents in viewership.”
- Named artists criticized the comment on social media, including Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny, Brazilian ballet dancer Victor Caixeta, and choreographer Kam Saunders.
- The Metropolitan Opera posted a behind-the-scenes video tagged to Chalamet, LA Opera pointed to a sellout run of Akhnaten, and the Royal Ballet and Opera issued a statement underscoring the art forms’ influence and invited him to visit.
- New York City Ballet principals Megan Fairchild and Sara Mearns weighed in—Mearns challenged Chalamet to join her in the studio—while Vienna’s Staatsoper highlighted near sellouts and Paris Opera referenced ping-pong in Nixon in China.
- Regional leaders cited strong demand, with Philadelphia’s BalletX and Philadelphia Ballet reporting robust sales and Opera Philadelphia noting frequent sellouts, as coverage also noted Chalamet has not issued a new clarification during his Marty Supreme awards campaign.