Timothée Chalamet gets scolded by high school principal, Doja Cat and ‘SNL’

The backlash against Timothée Chalamet’s disparaging comments about ballet and opera continued over the weekend with the actor’s high school principal, as well as hip-hop musician Doja Cat, defending the art forms, while “Saturday Night Live” turned his artistic controversy into a punchline.

At the same time, Academy Awards watchers pondered whether the “Marty Supreme” star had destroyed his hopes of winning a best actor Oscar by implying that the work of other performing artists was less worthy than acting in movies.

Late last week, Chalamet incited controversy over remarks he made to Matthew McConaughey during a Feb. 21 “CNN and Variety Town Hall Event.” The two stars were talking about the struggles in recent years for theatrical movies, when Chalamet said that being in movies is at least preferable to trying to work in ballet or opera where “It’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive.’”

“Even though it’s like, no one cares about this anymore,” Chalamet said about ballet or opera. “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there.”

Once Chalamet’s comments began to go viral, the ballet and opera communities fired back, with London-based ballet dancer Anna Yliaho writing on Instagram that “only an insecure artist tears down another discipline to elevate their own.”

Chalamet also “got called into the principal’s office at 30 years old,” someone joked on Reddit, while sharing an Instagram Stories post from Deepak Marwah, the principal at the actor’s alma mater, the famed LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. In the post, the principal of the renowned “Fame” school, congratulated Chalamet for becoming “one of the most celebrated actors of his generation.”

But, Marwah said — “with love” — that he felt compelled to respond to Chalamet’s comments about ballet and opera.

“At La Guardia, we do rank art forms,” Marwah said. “We believe that if a single performance, a single note, a single brushstroke, a single movement across a stage touches even one person — it is worthy. It matters. It is very much alive.”

Marwah also reminded Chalamet that he once boasted about growing up backstage at the New York City Ballet, where his grandmother, mother and sister danced. “You come from this world,” Marwah told Chalamet. “We know your heart, and we know you know better.”

Unfortunately for Chalamet, Doja Cat wasn’t so kind in her remarks to him, with the rapper going on TikTok Sunday to mispronounce his name before she pointed out that opera and ballet are art forms that predate movies by several centuries. She then castigated the “Dune” star for having “the nerve” to tell cameras that nobody cares about these art forms anymore.

Doja also said she was “pretty sure” that if someone went to an opera house today it would be completely packed,  with audiences sitting silently during the performances because “they have so much respect” for the genre. She also said that ballet takes an enormous physical toll on dancers, saying that these artists spend hours each day, enduring pain and suffering simply because they love what they do.

“It’s an amazing theater medium,” Doja said. “It’s beautiful. Dancers show up and they break and they bleed every single day. They have respect for what they do. They love what they do.”

Doja acknowledged that ballet, opera and other performing arts genres are going through a “tough period,” but it doesn’t mean that people “have stopped caring.” She also pointed out that movies are going through “a tough time” — as is her own music industry.

“People care. Dancers care, the singers care, the audience cares,” Doja continued. “People give a (expletive). You show up in a nice outfit. You sit the (expletive) down and shut the (expletive) up. That’ s the usual etiquette  around those things. Maybe learn something from that.”

Meanwhile, over on “Saturday Night Live,” which Chalamet has guest-hosted three times since 2020, the actor’s controversy about ballet and opera didn’t go unnoticed on “Weekend Update.” Anchor Colin Jost announced that Chalamet has been “criticized by major opera and ballet organizations after he said that no one cares about those art forms.” Jost then quipped: “Chalamet made the comment on a press tour for his movie about ping-pong.”

It remains to be seen if Chalamet’s comments have endangered his chances of winnning a best-actor Oscar for his performance in “Marty Supereme,” playing hyper-ambitious and self-centered table tennis prodigy Marty Mauser. Voting for the Oscars closed at 5 p.m. Thursday, possibly before members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began to take notice of the controversy.

But Oscars prognosticators already said earlier in the week that Chalamet had begun to lose momentum in the best-actor race, despite being the front-runner since December. They’ve said this loss became clear after Chalamet was upset at two major precursor awards ceremonies in a row — the BAFTAs and the Actor awards.

In the latter awards show on March 1, Chalamet suffered an upset loss to Michael B. Jordan for “Sinners,” with industry experts saying he got “snubbed,” perhaps because his over-eager, “non-humble campaigning persona” for “Marty Supreme” began to rub people the wrong way, as Deadline writer Marcus James Dixon explained. Following the close of Oscars voting, Variety surveyed members on how they voted and Chalamet’s name remains “in the conversation but not at the level” his campaign may have hoped.

Regarding Chalamet’s controversy, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera previously shared a video on Instagram highlighting all the work and artistry that goes into a production. The English National Opera and London’s Royal Ballet also called Chalamet out, while the Seattle Opera getting cheeky with Chalamet’s admission that he probably lost “14 cents in viewership” for his comments. The Seattle Opera invited fans — as well as Chalamet — to use the promo code “TIMOTHEE” for 14% off select tickets to this weekend’s performances of “Carmen​​​.”