Over dinner and dirty martinis at a steakhouse in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, I spoke with a good friend and fellow writer about Timothée Chalamet’s recent flaunting of his own artistic and intellectual deficiencies. In a conversation with Matthew McConaughey for Variety, Chalamet continued his swaggering plea for Best Actor Oscar glory. Between bits of aggrandizing awards-season interview questions and self-satisfied laughter, the 30-year old actor 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 … no one cares about this anymore.’”
He quickly added, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there … Damn, I took shots for no reason.” But the damage was done. Chalamet’s comments were dismissive and condescending, and far from the previous remarks he made earlier in the Marty Supreme press tour: “I grew up backstage at the New York City Ballet. My grandmother danced in the New York City Ballet, my mother danced in the New York City Ballet, my sister danced in the New York City Ballet. I grew up dreaming big at the backstage at the Koch Theater [at Lincoln Center] in New York … I’m like a Venn Diagram of the best cultural influences of the 21st century and 20th century.”
So many indelible screen performers have moved from ballet and other forms of dance into acting, bringing with them a keen understanding of the body as an instrument of storytelling itself. So it’s understandable why the actual artists in these fields and the wider public immediately rankled at Chalamet’s comments. The arts are not getting funded in this country. The wealthy no longer participate in cultural and artistic philanthropy. Instead, they’re committed to peacocking terrible style, yearning to be seen as culturally cool and literate. But Chalamet’s comments were bold for another reason. Even a passing glance at the film industry reveals it’s in its own existential and material crises. It reeks of the decline Chalamet gestures at, the kind that could spell extinction. This isn’t just a problem within the United States. The medium is facing a host of issues informed by global technological shifts and the financial dynamics of mounting a production anywhere. Let’s keep it focused. Hollywood — and, yes, American independent cinema — is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
