Luca Guadagnino says Timothée Chalamet “could have spared himself” from ballet and opera controversy
Luca Guadagnino has admitted that Timothée Chalamet “could have spared himself” from the controversy that was caused by his infamous comments about ballet and opera.
The director, who launched Chalamet at the start of his career with 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, was speaking in a recent interview with the Italian outlet La Stampa as he prepares to open his own version of the 1991 opera The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams in Florence on April 19th.
When asked what he thought about his former protégé saying that he didn’t want films to turn into the equivalent of ballet and opera as “no one cares” about the art forms, Guadagnino conceded that the actor “could have spared himself”.
However, he said, “I am not on social media and don’t understand how one [single] comment can become a planetary polemic.”
Guadagnino added, “Maybe Timothée could have spared himself. But he’s young, smart, sensitive, and he fears that cinema could become marginal. And that’s exactly why every form of imagination should be nurtured. We must unite the arts, not separate them.”
Chalamet’s comments, made at the CNN and Variety Town Hall event in early March, caused widespread outcry among the ballet and operatic communities and were widely seen as a blight on the end of his Oscars campaign for Marty Supreme.
At the awards on March 15th, Chalamet was subsequently the subject of a number of jibes, including host Conan O’Brien saying they had hired “extra tight security” due to “concerns about attacks from both the ballet and opera community”.
Retired American ballet dancer Misty Copeland also made a rare appearance during the performance of ‘I Lied To You’ from Sinners, apparently taking aim at the actor.
Both Chalamet and Marty Supreme ultimately walked away empty-handed from the Oscars, with the former losing in the ‘Best Actor’ category to Michael B Jordan.
However, he will next take a shot at big-screen glory with the release of the epic final chapter of Dune: Part Three in December.
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