Chalamet has been catching flak from creative professionals in all mediums since his comments about ballet and opera went viral in February.

Royal Ballet and Opera says Timothée Chalamet controversy led to ‘immediate’ boosted sales: ‘Cheers, Timmy’

Chalamet has been catching flak from creative professionals in all mediums since his comments about ballet and opera went viral in February.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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April 15, 2026 4:52 p.m. ET

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Timothée Chalamet. Credit:

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- Alex Beard, chief executive of the Royal Ballet and Opera, reflects on the viral controversy of Timothée Chalamet's disparaging comments on both art forms.

- "The public reaction was just fantastic," Beard says of the real-life aftermath of the February incident.

- Chalamet's comments also sparked strong responses from celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Nathan Lane, and ballet dancer Misty Copeland.

Timothée Chalamet may have caught immense flak after his comments about both ballet and opera went viral in February, but the controversy also led to some good news for both communities — boosted sales!

Alex Beard, chief executive of the Royal Ballet and Opera, shared the revelation in an interview with *The Times* published Tuesday.

"The public reaction was just fantastic," Beard told the outlet. "I thought it important that we didn't issue a kind of hoity-toity response to Chalamet. We simply said, 'Take a look at what we're doing, mate' — for instance, the fact that the largest portion of our audience by age is 20 to 30-year-olds."

And the people responded to the Royal Ballet and Opera by taking a look for themselves. "Our post got two and a half million engagements and half a million shares, just on Instagram," Beard shared. "And our ticket sales got an immediate boost. So cheers, Timmy!"

Alex Beard; Timothée Chalamet.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

For those who need a refresher, Chalamet was on a headline-making run promoting his Oscar-nominated film, *Marty Supreme, *and had already been courting the ire of various parties with overexposure when a town hall with his *Interstellar *costar Matthew McConaughey sparked controversy.

Filmed at the University of Texas at Austin, the town hall took a turn when Chalamet weighed in on the obstacles movie theaters face in modern times. "I admire people, and I've done it myself, who go on a talk show and go, 'Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. You know, we gotta keep this genre alive,'" he told the room. "And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it, like *Barbie*, like *Oppenheimer*, they're going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it."

But then came his comments about ballet and opera. "And I don't want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive,' even though it's like, no one cares about this anymore," he said, earning laughs from McConaughey and the audience.

Chalamet — whose grandmother, mother, and sister all danced with the New York City Ballet — seemed to realize how his words might land. "All respect to the ballet and opera people out there," he added, hurriedly. "I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason."

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Unsurprisingly, the comments did not fly well with artists in the ballet and opera community.

At the time, the Royal Ballet and Opera posted a clip celebrating its running shows and noting, "Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. … If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open."

The Seattle Opera went a different route, offering 14% off select *Carmen *seats with the code "TIMOTHEE" and quipping in the caption, "Timmy, you're welcome to use it too."

Celebrities chimed in as well: on the March 9 broadcast of *The View*, Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and guest cohost Sheryl Underwood all discussed Chalamet's comments. Hostin called them "vapid" and "shallow," while Goldberg, who pointed out his family ties to ballet, said he should know better.

"Be careful, boy … Don't apologize when you've insulted. It doesn't sound right," the EGOT winner warned. "You can't say, 'Oh, this is dumb, no disrespect.' That's absolute disrespect."

Timothée Chalamet.

David Jon/Getty

A few days later, *Death of a Salesman *revival star Nathan Lane shared his thoughts during an appearance on *The View* as well. "Oh, what a schmuck," Lane said. "It was kind of kaleidoscopic in its stupidity and insensitivity, and yet strangely telling about where we are in this country."

Speaking on the subject of A24's *Marty Supreme*, which follows Chalamet as a hyper-competitive ping-pong player, Lane added: "I've got news for Timmy. If you think nobody cares about opera and ballet, I can't tell you how much we don't care about ping-pong."

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Chalamet also wasn't safe during this year's Oscars, where he was the subject of jabs from host Conan O'Brien.

"Security is extremely tight tonight. Just gotta mention that," O'Brien said at the top of the show, initially appearing to reference reports that safety measures were increased due to the FBI warning of a potential "surprise attack" from Iran. However, O'Brien finished by joking, "I'm told there's concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities."

The camera then cut to Chalamet and partner Kylie Jenner in the audience, with both laughing as they watched O'Brien in the moment. The comedian made one more quip before moving on, looking at Chalamet as he said, "They're just mad you left out jazz!"

Misty Copeland onstage during the Oscars on March 15, 2026.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty

Misty Copeland — who performed that night during the Oscars' musical number for Ryan Coogler's Oscar-winning vampire period piece *Sinners — *said in a March 9 TikTok video that she found it "interesting" that Chalamet invited her to help promote his Oscar-nominated film *Marty Supreme *"with respect to my art form."* *

"But I think that it's important that we acknowledge that, yes, this is an art form that's not 'popular' and a part of pop culture as movies are," Copeland continued. "But that doesn't mean it doesn't have enduring relevance in culture."

Copeland's final note to Chalamet was that the *Complete Unknown* star wouldn't have the opportunities he's achieved thus far if not for "opera and ballet in their relevance in that medium."

She concluded, "So all of these mediums have a space, and we shouldn't be comparing them."

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