Charlize Theron thinks that Timothée Chalamet has about a decade left before AI comes for his job — but dancers will forever be safe from the robots.
Theron’s thoughts came as she responded to his recent “very reckless” comments about ballet and opera. In an interview with The New York Times, Theron spoke about her experiences with dance (she trained as a ballerina until a knee injury forced her to change careers) and how demanding it can be.
“Dance is probably one of the hardest things I ever did. Dancers are superheroes. What they put their bodies through in complete silence,” she said.
Her response prompted reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro to say, “Sorry, Timothée Chalamet,” which in turn, made Theron address Chalamet’s comments questioning ballet and opera’s relevance.
“Oh, boy, I hope I run into him one day,” Theron answered. “That was a very reckless comment on an art form, two art forms, that we need to lift up constantly because, yes, they do have a hard time. But in 10 years, AI is going to be able to do Timothée’s job, but it will not be able to replace a person on a stage dancing live. And we shouldn’t shit on other art forms.”
Back in February, Chalamet upset the world of professional dancers during a live Variety and CNN town hall with Matthew McConaughey. During the otherwise compelling conversation about their careers, Chalamet made a flippant remark about ballet and opera seemingly being irrelevant to the modern world.
“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 with a laugh. “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there. I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason."
Since then, multiple actors and dancers have spoken out in support of ballet and opera, including Grammy-winning opera singer Isabel Leonard.
"Honestly, I'm shocked that someone so seemingly successful can be so ineloquent and narrow minded in his views about art while considering himself as an artist as I would only imagine one would as an actor,” Leonard said. "To take cheap shots at fellow artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say. Shows a lot about his character."
At this year’s Grammy Awards, Chalamet was repeatedly called out for his comments. Host Conan O’Brien even joked that there was tight security because of what the actor said.
As of the time of this writing, Chalamet hasn’t issued an apology.
