A Diss or the Hard Truth?

by Abbey Smith

Back in February of this year, acclaimed actors Matthew McConaughey and Timothee Chalamet sat down for an hour-long interview. These two actors have been in many acclaimed films, Chalamet having multiple Oscar nominations under his belt and McConaughey even having an Oscar of his own.

The two actors discussed many topics, mostly pertaining to film. If you have social media and you don’t live under a rock, then it’s very likely you’ve seen a specific, very short clip from this lengthy interview. 

In a viral clip, usually lasting around five to ten seconds depending on who posts it, depicts Timothee Chalamet dissing ballet and opera as he stated, “…keep this thing alive. Even though it’s like no one cares about this anymore.” This caused an uproar, prompting many celebrities and organizations to lash out. Even people outside of the film realm, someone like your next door neighbor or classmate, had something to say about Chalamet’s comment. Someone you know who has done ballet for 10 years, or a friend who has never cared about the performing arts in their life, had something to add to this discourse.

The conversation surrounding Chalamet’s claims got really messy really quick. It seemed the majority immediately turned on Chalamet. People were offended by his words, causing more people to become offended, and so on. Some on the internet live to hate while others try to reason their hatred. It seemed Chalamet united these two sides in one complete hatred for himself and what he said.

Chalamet was at one point even on track to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Marty Supreme, sweeping at all the awards show leading up to the Oscar’s. Many believe this comment ruined his chances at winning, as he even experienced digs at his comments during the ceremony. Whether or not he lost because of this is a whole other can of worms waiting to be opened. However, the fact that one could think he could lose this honor goes to show the impact his comments made.

It was depicted as if Timothee Chalamet meant this as no one cares or likes the performing arts. However, context is key to realizing that he may have truly meant the opposite.  

Use Your Resources

Before digging into the Chalamet’s words as well as the discourse and evidence surrounding it, let’s look at a guide as to how to actually find the truth in this whole mess.

Verified is a book written by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg, written to help a researcher understand ways of weeding out misinformation. To be more specific, they use a method called SIFT: Stop, Investigate, Find, and Trace. In goes more in depth of what this really means, but overall is a helpful acronym or tool in separating the right from the wrong. This is how I will go about determining the true meaning of Chalamet’s claims.

Furthermore, in a later chapter, it discussed how video clips can be used to spread misinformation or stretch the truth. Caulfield and Wineburg discuss that the shorter a video clip is, the easier it is to bend and twist the context of what the clip is from. This seems it could be the case for Chalamet.  

The Backstory

As mentioned, the part of the interview that went viral, sparked this outrage and discourse is no more than ten seconds. Compared to the people who are discussing this controversy, how many of those have actually watched the full interview? How many of those people have even watched the ten minutes leading up to the interview? Or ten minutes afterward? It’s clear that the numbers are quite disproportionate. 

To better contextualize Chalamet’s words, let’s discuss what happened in the few minutes leading up to his notorious comment. At around fifty six minutes into the interview, McConaughey is discussing how attention spans are depleting and movies are accommodating this by rushing the first acts of film. This is a real problem, one that corporations are giving into. Netflix itself is altering its scripts to accomodate the declining attention spans of its audience, especially from teens. Chalamet acknowledges and agrees with this problem to extent, but believes it is mostly a problem for the older generations. He responds by saying he agrees, but believes that Gen-Z are the movie going generation, as compared to Millennials. He claims that Gen-Z is appreciating all films, especially ones that are slower paced or films that could be perceived as “boring.” He believes Gen-Z to appreciating the art form of film much more than the other generations, possibly giving some kind of hope to this declining industry.

He also brings up the phenomenon of “Barbenheimer”. When two polar opposite films, Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day, drawing crowds of people to watch both films in a day, which greatly aided the box office and overall attendence and atmosphere in movie theaters. For better understanding, moviegoers dressed up in corresponding colors, pink or black, when attending “Barbenheimer.” There was definitely a hype surrounding film during this time, which saw a low during the COVID era.

Again, this Barbenheimer trend, or really most moviegoing trends nowadays, are most popular among Gen-Z, according to Chalamet. He explained how it made people “proud” and excited to attend movies.

This is leads him into the quote that has him on the hot seat, again, as he stated, “And I don’t wanna be working in ballet and 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. All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership. But, yeah, I just took shots for no reason.” Based on this context, Chalamet only made this claim as he personally believes the audience and appreciation for performing arts such as ballet and opera is declining, and he doesn’t want to see the same thing happen for the movie industry. At the end of the quote, he acknowledges his words negative connotations, but it seems to be just a hard truth rather than a lashing.  

Coming to Timmy’s Defense

Even though the majority found these comments offensive, many popular news sites understood Chalamet’s words. The New York Times even published a piece on it, dissecting what Chalamet said and what he probably meant. The article stated, “Chalamet’s point wasn’t that ballet and opera don’t matter, but that it isn’t really part of mainstream culture. He was dismissing these art forms’ roles in our society, and is he wrong? The value of ballet and opera, and people’s perception around their value, are two different things.” The article then went on to give specific examples of the decline of attention to the performing arts, as well as discussing Chalamet’s background in the performing arts. This acknowledgement of Chalamet’s intentions and his history with the arts, further backs up the thought that he wasn’t dissing ballet and opera at all. Not only is it popular news sites, but again, common people also made their mark in the discourse defending Chalamet, offering compelling evidence to defend him just as much as the offensive side.

The Decline of Performing Arts Popularity

To be fair, not everyone may be aware of the decline of the performing arts audience, or even audiences for all mediums of art. A simple google search will reveal many articles to show this, including scholarly studies. As related to the concept of the decline of attention span, many audience goers hold unrealistic expectations for art shows. They are more focused on the “experience” of the art rather than the art itself, leading to this decline in attendance. Because, let’s be fair, there are huge stereotypes surrounding the performing arts, specifically ballet and opera, that these mediums are “boring.” Just like gossip, these stereotypes can spread, affecting the opinions of potential audience goers. It raises their expectations on what the “experience” should be like. 

It’s clear to anyone that since COVID-19, nothing has been the same, especially media consumption. Attention span has gotten worse in these past almost seven years. Back to what McConaughey said about rushing plot lines, this is a trend seen after COVID-19 as well as the depletion in attendance and the economics revolving around performing arts. COVID even influenced the performers themselves, interfering with face-to-face interactivity and rehearsals, as well as the actual attendance to the shows. This is the same for theaters. A trend beginning ith the lack of attendance in performing arts and movie theaters, is a trend that continues today, as Chalamet made clear in his statement. 

To Conclude…

After examining the evidence given, let’s circle back and decide if what Chalamet said was truly a diss to the performing arts or not.

A recap: Chalamet has a background in the arts. Attention spans are depleting. And it’s a fact that there is a decline in audience for the performing arts and the movie theaters. It really can feel as though sometimes people don’t care for these mediums anymore, but that doesn’t negate their value at all. In fact, it should want people to value it more.

Chalamet’s focus is now film. He knows his audience. He knows the performing arts are declining at a faster pace than film is. He doesn’t want film to follow the same route. He wants people to still care about film, as that is his career. To conclude: Maybe it’s up to your own interpretation what Chalamet truly meant. It’s undeniable that his words were harsh so perhaps it’s up to one’s own sensitivity to determine if he was rude. However, he wasn’t wrong. He was simply worried for the future of his chosen art medium. He wants people to care about all of these mediums. It seems that all the backlash he faced were only proving the point he wanted to make. Ironically enough, he caused an uproar that proved maybe people still do care about the arts when he was scared people did not.