Timothée Chalamet sparked a full-blown cultural backlash after his remarks on ballet and opera during a late February conversation.
In response to his comments, the head of the Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO), Alex Beard, takes a playful dig at the Academy-nominated actor, stating that after his comments, the ticket sales soared.
“I thought it important that we didn’t issue a kind of hoity-toity response to Chalamet,” he tells The Times.
“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.”
Beard then adds, “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!”
In addition, the Seattle Opera took a swipe at Chalamet, writing on Instagram that fans could buy tickets using the promo code ‘TIMOTHEE’ for the Carmen show.
“Timmy, you’re welcome to use it too,” the post read.
Chalamet courted controversy in a February chat with Matthew McConaughey about preserving cinema and appeared to dismiss opera and ballet as art forms.
“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,'” he said, adding, “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”
