Oscars 2026: Conan O’Brien makes a joke of Timothée Chalamet’s ballet controversy
Conan O’Brien directed a joke at Timothée Chalamet during his opening monologue at the Oscars, making light of the actor’s recent controversies.
The host claimed that the show had “extremely tight security tonight” before jokingly revealing, “I’m told there’s concern about attack from both the ballet and opera community”, causing loud laughter from the audience at the expense of Chalamet and his latest media faux pas.
O’Brien then jibed: “You’re just mad you left out jazz!”, before the camera panned to Chalamet in the audience. He seemed to take the joke well, laughing happily along with his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner.
It comes after the actor made the comment in an interview with Matthew McConaughey about the future of cinema in the age of AI, when he 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 like no one cares about this anymore’.”
Despite adding, “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there”, Chalamet’s opinion was seen as offensive to many in the wider arts industry, with a lot of such figures in the industry hitting back at the actor in an attempt to prove him wrong.
For some, the controversy was enough to start stirring questions about the actor’s Oscars chances for his role in Marty Supreme, after he had openly campaigned about being in the “pursuit of greatness” in the process.
It could be the case that Leonardo DiCaprio or Michael B Jordan could be more likely to take home the award for ‘Best Actor’ for which Chalamet is nominated.
If he were successful, it would mark Chalamet’s first Oscar win after previously being nominated in the same category for Call Me By Your Name and A Complete Unknown.
However, Jordan has now become the possible frontrunner in the group, aside from Ethan Hawke and Wagner Moura, for his role as Smoke and Stack in Sinners.
It would mark one of the high points of the evening for Sinners, making up one of its 16 nominations for the night, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ for Ryan Coogler.
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