The Timothee Chalamet pile-on continues. Is it deserved? Or do you feel a little bit sorry for him? I don’t feel sorry for him, but I also kind of feel like the extreme backlash is overkill. My feeling is that Chalamet gave an okay performance in a bad movie (Marty Supreme) and when he won a couple of awards, he believed that it was his moment and his time, and he should go balls-to-the-wall. It was the wrong strategy and, really, the wrong film and performance.
Obviously, Chalamet’s ballet-and-opera comments didn’t help, neither did a full week of backlash going into the Oscars, in which stars of the performing arts dragged Timmy to hell and back. To make matters worse, even Steven Spielberg referenced Chalamet’s comments at SXSW, saying in part: “For me, the real experience comes when we can influence a community to congregate in a strange, dark space where all of us are strangers. At the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with, or into the nighttime with. And there’s nothing like that. It happens in movies, and in concerts. And it happens in ballet and opera, by the way.” This Spielberg shade (or whatever we’re calling it) played out on the Oscar red carpet, when Spielberg completely blanked Chalamet when they were just a few feet away from each other (I’m including that video below).
Additionally, the “body-language experts” have cast their eyes upon Timmy and Kylie Jenner, and they’re basically just feeding red meat to the few Chalaloonies still out there, desperate for a split. I doubt it’s happening, but whatever, I’m not fighting the wave. Also: according to the Sun, Chalamet and Kylie left the Oscar auditorium for an hour in the middle of the show. Like… I seriously doubt that was because of Conan O’Brien’s jokes. Lots of people head to the bar and chat with friends rather than sit in that auditorium for hours.
PS… the backlash against Timmy might already be over, given the reaction to the Dune 3 trailer.
Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner walked out of the Oscars for an hour after he was mocked repeatedly pic.twitter.com/ydSgoM7GtW
— The Sun (@TheSun) March 17, 2026
Them narrating this is so messy 😭 pic.twitter.com/ZRMuroLDRz
— ໊ (@jasonsproblems) March 16, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Timothée Chalamet arrives on the red carpet of the 98th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 15, 2026.,Image: 1083326694, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: LCY/Avalon
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- Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083404717, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083453783, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083455244, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Kylie Jenner, Timothée Chalamet, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Red carpet arrivals to the 98th Academy Awards at Dolby Thetre in Los Angeles Featuring: Timothee Chalamet Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 15 Mar 2026 Credit: Jennifer Bloc/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
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- Celebrities attend the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscars Party hosted by Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art Featuring: Kylie Jenner, Timothee Chalamet Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 15 Mar 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
There is no backlash. The interview came out after voting was finished, it wasn’t going to happen for him. One constant thing I’ve seen on social media is people talking about MBJ not only being an excellent actor but a kind and professional artist. I think after watching Timmy’s ego and “cosplay”, a voting block that already didn’t like him went the other way. He is not liked in Hollywood. My husband is a writer with a lot of writer friends there, he is not liked, respected but not liked.
I have a visceral dislike of the rat-faced boy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (the scraggly facial hair and helmet hairdo don’t help). Not always, though, he was great in “Call Me By Your Name”. But now? He believes all his own hype it seems, and needs to step outside barefoot, and touch grass for a bit of humility. He seems stoned or dead-eyed most of the time now, and so full of himself. It’s very off-putting (to me, anyway).
I do think his comment(s) about opera and ballet were flat out stupid, as well as narrow-minded. He is 30 yrs. old, not some young kid with no world experience. It brings to mind the Mark Twain quote: “Better to be silent and thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt”.
Yes me too. I have never understood the hype around this anaemic victorian ghost boy, and I don’t enjoy his movies (and I loved the Dune books so him being cast as Paul really irks me). I think he’s not as good as he thinks he is, and it was nice of Hollywood to remind him of that. And it’s not like he won’t get 1000 second chances. If he wasn’t white, well that would be another story entirely.
He is a cocky little sh!t that needs to be put in his place.
If a woman missteps, she is vilified for ages and can never come back. A couple weeks of bashing for a guy is nothing.
Just signed in to I agree with all of you, @2123Jan, @Danbury, @StellainNH. There’s a phrase for this, when you’ve been using your own product? He’s up his own behind. I read those Dune books back in the day and did enjoy the movies enough because of Zendaya. And of course, the judging scale is never the same for the ladies. No signs of improvement there.
We watch these celebs in the little public moments in time the give us and assess their character. I’m reminded of the eye-rollingly self-named Quad God who seemed like an arrogant little boy, until he screwed up his Olympics and showed he was a gracious and generous loser. Then we realized he was a better person than we’d ever realized when he was winning everything. In contrast, Timmy punches down at struggling arts, he’s a sore loser, and an entitled winner. (He also seems not to realize that most people care more about prestige tv series than films these days, and he still just wants to be a movie star.)
Ilya Malinin changed his insta handle to Quadgod almost immediately after landing his first quad. It was seen as hilarious in the skating community, especially since the then current top guy, Nathan Chen, was known as the Quad King.
What bothers me in all this is a level of avoiding what achieving success actually takes. You don’t reach Timothy Chalamet levels of success without a more than healthy ego and self confidence. It seems odd to tear him down over some of that showing through. I guess I just assume movie stars are somewhat odd people who would not actually fit into my everyday life.
There’s nothing wrong with having a bit of an ego and pride in something you excel at, that being said. When you become braggadocios to the point that you have to talk smack and put things and people down to make yourself look good, you’ve lost the thread.
The response in the interview felt arrogant, egocentric, condescending and that was a smirk I recognized from the cool popular dudes in high school who assumed they could do no wrong, are untouchable, and took for granted that the crowd was going to be behind them whatever they did.
Not anymore. People saw that. Bullies are born from those attitudes. There are no movie stars. There are only regular people that are celebrities or regular people who are anonymous – no pedestal for no one.
I think people seized on the ballet and opera comments because they seemed to just add to this personality he’s been putting out there for the past year or so, where he thinks he’s the greatest actor since Olivier or Bogart. Also, he was promoting a movie about a ping pong player. Do you know what people don’t really care about? Professional ping pong.
Ego in hollywood is a tricky thing. Everyone wants that Oscar. Everyone wants to win it. Everyone who’s nominated likely thinks they deserve to win (with maybe a few exceptions). But you are not supposed to come out and basically say that. You need to walk the line of acting surprised and gracious when you win but not SO surprised that its disingenuous. you’re supposed to be thrilled when someone else wins because “they deserved it” even if you thought you deserved it.
And its why Oscar campaigning is a tricky thing – if you campaign too hard you seem desperate, if you don’t campaign at all you seem disinterested and not “worthy” of the award. He did not campaign well this year. He came across as arrogant, entitled and sulky that he hadn’t won an Oscar yet. I think he can fix this but he needs to do better for his next promotional round.
I dont think Dune 3 will save his reputation unless he DOES make that change for it. Because for most people the issue isn’t his acting or his movies (although I don’t think he’s that great an actor), but his attitude. There’s a game to play in Hollywood and those who win Oscars, for the most part, know how to play it very well.
That doesnt mean you only win bc you play the game – I think Michael B Jordan gave a performance for the ages in Sinners and deserved the win – but it certainly helps.
I agree a lot with what you say here (I usually do 🙂 ), but I also think dating Kylie plays a part. I don’t agree and I think people should date whomever and fans don’t get a say. But there was and is tremendous backlash about him dating Kylie. So many people, here and elsewhere, said it ruined his “brand”. I think his brand is directly related to the project he is promoting at the time. In my opinion marty supreme was intensely unlikeable and I think his promotion matched the style of the character and film. I think he’s very good at promoting himself and his projects; he got a lot of people to see a movie about table tennis. But as you say, actually promoting yourself in Hollywood is much different. If he lets go of his ego a bit and gets, and takes, better advice, I’m sure he’ll be fine. As someone said it’s not like he isn’t going to get 1000 chances anyway
I agree with you lol. I do think dating Kylie hurt him. I don’t think it should have – Im not a Kardashian fan but they’ve been dating for what, two years now, so its not like this is just a fling and I actually think she’s been pretty respectful of his moments on the red carpet and such.
but still, he had this reputation – deserved or not -as sort of this cerebral actor who was above it all so dating her affected that.
I don’t know Kylie’s thoughts on ballet & opera nor would I hold her responsible for what Timotheé chose to say with his own mouth, but this is definitely not dispelling the myth that every man who gets involved with the K-J clan eventually wrecks himself. He is probably still considered a good actor by many people and he can potentially recover from this, but I think it’s going to take a while and he better be practicing some appropriately thoughtful answers for when he gets asked about those comments in every interview for the rest of his career.
His comments on ballet and opera were flippant and his tone was too dismissive and arrogant. If he had taken the time to use nuance, rather than try to sound witty, he could have made a decent point.
However, I think the backlash is ridiculous. Brad Pitt has received nothing like that. There was more outrage about this than the non-response to the n-word at the BAFTAS. There are celebrities who have said things much worse than this, but now the world found a cause they really needed to be loud about? I love the arts; I think there should be more funding and support for all mediums, including more niche ones like opera and ballet.
I don’t feel bad for him. I think he’s talented and the Oscar had already been decided; MBJ deserved it fully. But this has been ridiculous.
The BP point is valid lol. Even though I thought the F1 movie nom was silly, I was happy Damson attended rather than him.
I’m not sure that jokes at his expense count as backlash. There is no indication that he has lost a role. As others have said, it think the reaction he got is in part because he has trended toward snotty brat for some time now and those who were already annoyed jump at the chance to emphasize his arrogant attitude. I also think he is getting flak because the jokes wrote themselves – his comment was easy to attack and folks could attack the comment without creating controversy for themselves. Those attacking someone who has done something really wrong court a lot of controversy for standing up, which is why so many people do not.
I just can’t get over the terrible hair on Oscar night… it reminds me of a teased, frosted ‘do my mom sported in the ’70s.
He made rude comments and people didn’t like it. More than just Dune 3 though, I think it matters what he does next if that makes sense. What projects he chooses? Who he works with? How he talks about film and the arts and his coworkers during the next round of promo. I said yesterday that MBJ is always talking up his costars and crew whereas I don’t know that Timmy does that as much. Maybe he does but all I remember is him talking up Kevin OLeary. LOL. I’ll never get over that.
I’ll never get over that either. Casting O’Leary was A Choice and talking him up during an acceptance speech was also A Choice. My feeling is that TC isn’t well liked by many in the industry and this was their moment to pounce. You’ve got Spielberg making comments about opera and ballet which doesn’t seem like his usual behavior. He’s come off as a standard entitled white bro for a while now (probably because he is one) and people don’t like it.
TC is thirty. He hasn’t aged into the looks of a Leading Man. He’s a good actor who’s had great opportunities, but I don’t think he’s a great actor.
The backlash is not enough! It needs to go harder.
The cosplay and attitude was not at Joquin Phoenix levels of performance “art”, and may have been intended to drum up interest in Marty Supreme, but it landed oddly from almost the get go. Maybe because it kind of coincided with the launch of his relationship or ‘relationship’ with KJ, maybe because it seemed inspired by the character he played in the film who from what I’ve heard was obnoxious and thought he was all that which might not be a great one to emulate to win hearts, minds, respect publicly or in Hollywood.
Then TC didn’t pivot off that approach, even when it wasn’t winning him any fans, and then the one on one with McCoughnahey , who himself can be smug and smarmy, just dialed that persona up – with a side of bro-dude that seemed at odds with the image he’d been cultivating prior to his MS promo tour.
All of that combined to stir up pushback from multiple quarters – long-time TC stans, art film folks who thought he was more of an intellectual artiste, the gold derby Hollywood watchers who want nominees to campaign a certain way, and him repeating his ballet and opera are dead talking points in a widely seen forum just poured fuel on it.
Sounds like the MS film and performance weren’t going to go the distance to carry him to an Oscar anyway – plenty of actors weather a BA loss just fine, but his own choices, behaviour are what have stirred up the pushback that’s coming his way and dinging his image in some quarters.
I don’t think the backlash is too much. He hasn’t apologized or had an epiphany about why his comments were so poorly received. I do think he can still turn it around in many people’s eyes, but for me, personally, his attitude towards (imo) higher arts isn’t even the worst of the comments. That stupid comment about “losing 14 cents in market share” means no project he’s in will get a dime for me. I’m tired of making awful people famous and to be so disdainful toward the people who consume his art and out millions in his pocket (without which his bionic girlfriend would never even have looked at him) is a sin I don’t feel like forgiving.
He had a week of bad press and didn’t happen to win an Oscar. Poor guy! I think he’ll survive.
Apparently the opera and ballet comments were supposed to be illustrative to a larger point he was making about how going to the movies is being priced out of mass accessibility and becoming in danger of turning niche as a result? Like ballet and opera are niche entertainment? I didn’t listen to the podcast but read that explanation of the surrounding context and it makes a lot of sense to me, and if it’s true, I’m sorry he got dragged for a soundbite taken out of context.
But generally speaking, he has absolutely been an arrogant, overexposed attention whore of a little twerp for awhile now, and it’s pretty disappointing. Because he is a genuinely good actor. The fact that the Dune 3 trailer hype is so real despite Timmy’s recent douche celeb vibes is a testament to how genuinely good he is. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets another Oscar nom for Paul, when all is said and done.
It’s when he flippantly said “I just lost 14 cents for saying that” after saying what he said about ballet and opera where he rankled so many folks. He wasn’t just doubling down on his ballet and opera don’t matter take, but they matter so little that dissing them only cost him a pittance. That was the true insult. It was childish, unprofessional, and just plain dickish. This grown ass man knows better than that. He had better home training than that. He just showed the world what an ass he truly is. And the comment wasn’t even funny, if he was going for, “just a joke, bro.” He’s just another sucky mediocre white dude.
His obnoxious behavior started last year during his complete unknown Oscar campaign and ramped up with this one, coming off as if he thought the Academy owed him.
As for backlash, Anne Hathaway!
He has been unlikable, but I am starting to get bored with the controversy. I’m not sure if all the viral content makes me bored with everyone saying the same thing though.
I don’t have an issue with a ballet dancer like Misty Copeland giving an interview and saying something interesting/illuminating, as she will be sharing information that is valuable, but I feel the viral content creators talking about this controversy aren’t churning out anything I find all that enlightening. This might be an Instagram problem though haha. It’s the same content over and over again..
I do think he’s taken the mocking in stride though. He reacted with the best smile he could when Conan made fun of him.
This is terrible to say but I think his relationship hurts him more than the ballet comments.
Opera and ballet are not going to be affected by Timotay Chal-a-met’s one-time comment. World War III is being started by psychopaths who think starting a war is going to bring us zombie Jesus. Pregnant women in the U.S. are dying because of insane laws getting passed by “religious” zealots who don’t care that mothers have a heartbeat too. Billionaires who trafficked, raped, abused and murdered children are walking around free even though the evidence of what they did is out there. I don’t know if the Chalamet backlash is a form of dissociation? I think maybe that’s what it is. And listen, I get it: I have my forms of dissociation from the horrors too.
Whether the take is positive or negative, if I never hear the name Timothee Chalamet again, it will be too soon. He’s very overexposed at this point and should probably consider a long vacation on a distant tropical 🏝️.
He’s repulsive…
Nah. His dude bro persona is a mess. And I hate his hair and facial hair. Everytime I see him now I recoil.
He’s been insufferable for about a year now and people were sick of it, that’s why the backlash was so strong.
Funny but I don’t recall anyone saying that the hate for Anne Hathaway for her Oscar’s speech was too much. Absolutely no one came to her defense and the NYT even published an article saying how cringe she was. And she didn’t make some totally douche-bro comment like Timmy.
The analysis on here is so spot on and interesting, so I won’t repeat but I guess I would add some of the context I think is at play.
Going on record with your sense of entitlement while dating Kylie Jenner at a time when people are struggling under crippling inflation and unfair wages, navigating a dying democracy at the hands of the orange narcissist nepo baby…well, it’s a tough look. (I’m long time faculty and literally on strike right now!) Capitalism is hitting its endpoint of injustice and suffering in a first world country, so it’s particularly hard to root for a guy leaning into a character who embodies toxic masculinity and commodification while dating a figure who symbolizes the objectification and privilege that capitalism promotes. (the film was likely critiquing those qualities but you wouldn’t get that from how he campaigned!)
Is it fair to hold KJ accountable for the mechanisms that let her family thrive? To hold TC accountable for flaunting his privilege and disregarding art forms that are near and dear to people at a time when we turn to the arts for meaning and hope?
For me, Sinners, Ryan Coogler, and MBJ rose in estimation not just because they were brilliant in their craft, but they told a story worth telling at a time when we’re drawn to the resilience of those characters, the history they depicted, the music they celebrated… and I think they promoted their work with humility and dignity. (sorry for the long rant!)
For an artist to denigrate another art form shows immaturity and a large lack of class. (well, he is dating a member of that wretched, untalented, classless family and seems to have adopted their I’m so superior attitude). He made some stupid comments, believed his own hype and apparently never learned to be gracious. Too bad. He could learn a lot from Leo DiCaprio. And stop knocking art forms he doesn’t like. If he really wanted to make amends, he’d make a donation to a struggling arts theater that supports ballet and/or opera. Give back Mr. Underwhelming. Realize how lucky you are and have a bit of humility. Be Gregory Peck or Keanu Reeves, they might be good examples of those who appreciated what they have/had. Just my 2 cents.