Royal Ballet And Opera Says Timothée Chalamet Saga Boosted Sales: 'Cheers, Timmy!'

One positive to come from Timothée Chalamet’s recent controversial comments about the fields of opera and ballet is a sudden boost of interest in the art forms.

Last month, Timothée faced widespread backlash when he remarked during an interview that he didn’t want his acting career to be like “working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore’”.

“All respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” the Oscar nominee then quickly added, quipping: “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”

Following weeks of discourse, Royal Ballet and Opera chief Alex Beard told The Times that the outpouring of support since the Call Me By Your Name actor’s interview has been “fantastic”.

He claimed: “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 you know what? Our post got two and a half million engagements and half a million shares, just on Instagram. And our ticket sales got an immediate boost. So cheers, Timmy!”

Some of Timothée’s more prolific critics included Broadway legend Nathan Lane, screen icon Whoopi Goldberg and the chart-topping rapper Doja Cat, who later walked back her own criticisms of the actor.

While he is yet to actually address the backlash directly, it was joked about at this year’s Oscars, where he was nominated for his leading performance in Marty Supreme, but lost out on the night to Sinners’ Michael B Jordan.

He also appeared to have put the furore behind him when he posted some carefree snaps from his recent holiday with partner Kylie Jenner on Instagram.