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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a publicity stunt and it is working.  Look at all the press he’s getting.  Next he’ll redeem himself by enrolling in a ballet class at ABT and doing a Netflix show about it.  [/quote]

He has already taken plenty of ballet classes. That's likely why he's bitter about it. His grandmother was a dancer with the New York City Ballet, and his mom and sister both trained with the School of American Ballet in their professional program. He grew up attending performances at Lincoln Center and having a backstage view of one of the best ballet companies in the world.

He's being a petulant child and trying to say "my art is better than your art because at least people watch my art." And maybe he found the ballet very boring as a kid and resented having to go. Fine. Coming from an artistic family led directly to him become an actor at a young age and there is no question that his early exposure to such a high caliber of performance and having family members performing at that level helped him learn his craft. Several people who know his family, both dancers and actors, have pointed this out. His family is well known within the NY ballet world and he personally knows many of the people at the major companies.

He's just a brat.[/quote]

That’s a lot of reading into things he didn’t say. All he said is that ballet and opera don’t have large audiences — which is a fact. He wants to be in films that have large audiences, and it’s a fact that he has been in films with large audiences.[/quote]

The exact quote:

"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 any more.'"

I think people mainly responded to "even though like no one cares about this any more" because it implies HE doesn't care about them. People in the ballet and opera worlds did in fact take that personally, in part because Chalamet has close ties to the ballet community in NY, so this felt like a dismissal or put down whether he meant it that way or not.

I think if he didn't have this background and connection to the ballet/opera worlds, people would not have gotten as mad. The point is that people generally see the Chalamet family as an ally to these art forms which, yes, of course struggle to continue to find an audience. It's a comment you expect from someone totally ignorant of those art forms, not someone who grew up with close connections to those communities.[/quote]

I agree with all of this.  I’d add that I had more of an issue with the rest of his comment:

“I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”

First, as someone who does “care about” ballet, some forms of opera, and arts and arts education in general, the dismissiveness of his comments took me aback — especially given his background, which included an arts education and subsidized housing.  Lots of people cared enough about things like ballet and opera, to the point where they/we helped pay for Chalamet’s very specialized education and housing.  Had he gone on to say something about the  positive value of these art forms, his comments likely would have been quickly forgotten.  Instead, he acknowledged his own mean spiritedness —  taking shots for no reason — and belittled audiences and supporters of art forms he himself doesn’t have the skills to pursue.

I shifted from vaguely thinking of him as “that young man in Little Women” to seeing him as arrogant, ungrateful for many of the opportunities that he has had access to throughout his life, and mean spirited.  It might only be 14 cents, but when I spend it intentionally, I’ll happily use it towards a Ryan Coogler production, ballet tickets, or a jazz performance.  Chalamet doesn’t need or appreciate my 14 cents, and the feeling is now mutual.

[/quote]

Totally agree. It came off as simultaneously punching down and totally ungrateful for is own opportunities. And honestly while I don't think it lost him the Oscar this year, I do think it will contribute to the perception of him as being arrogant and thoughtless, which will not endear him to an industry full of older people who care deeply about the arts, plural and in general. The Academy skews older and lots of voters view it as part of their duty and legacy to support not only film but also theater and older art forms like ballet and opera. Many sit on the boards at major ballet and opera companies and raise money for these organizations as part of giving back. It might only be worth 14 cents from the broader population, but it's actually worth a lot more than that within his own community.[/quote]

I guess I wonder why these older people aren’t doing a better job of attracting a new generation to ballet, opera, and even the movies. They have all this power and money— what are they doing with them? While Chalamet made his comments in a stupid way, these old people deserve to be called out.[/quote]

It's on the parents, too. Young people don't even really enjoy film anymore. You should read that Atlantic article: "The Film Students Who Can No Longer Sit Through Films." Professors mention that "the longer they [students] go without checking their phone, the more they fidget." And these are [b]FILM MAJORS[/b]. Can you imagine how this generation would behave during an opera?[/quote]

So maybe these arts really are dying, and need to adapt. Otherwise, it is a lot like how he described it -- they are being propped up even though not many care about going to them anymore. What are all these old Academy members on the boards doing about that?[/quote]

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