Timothée Chalamet ballet and opera comment: Ballet Austin responds

article

Timothée Chalamet attends the 32nd Annual Actor Awards at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall on March 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

AUSTIN, Texas - Timothée Chalamet sparked backlash from ballet and opera communities and supporters after a comment he made during a town hall event in Austin and Ballet Austin has responded.

The backstory:

The controversy started after video was uploaded from the "CNN and Variety Town Hall Event" on Feb. 24 that was held at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Chalamet was at the event with Matthew McConaughey and the two were discussing the topic of the industry's growing tendency to front-load their "biggest action set pieces" instead of saving those sequences for the end.

As part of his comments, Chalamet said, "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."

Many organizations and well-known figures in the ballet and opera community, including The Metropolitan Opera, were not happy with the comments.

Local perspective:

Ballet Austin responded to the comments and said in an Instagram post, "Timothée, you were in Austin. We were literally down the street."

The post goes on to say, "Austin has brisket. Austin has music. Austin also has ballet."

It then goes on to say that Ballet Austin is giving away tickets to the world premiere of "MARIE ANTOINETTE: Vampire Queen of Versailles" to anyone who is named Timothée, Timothee or Timothy. 

They can claim a free ticket by sending Ballet Austin a DM and showing an ID.

Other organizations around the country also responded in a similar manner with invitations to Chalamet to come watch a performance or discount codes using his name.