Steven Spielberg appeared to shade Timothée Chalamet after the actor caused controversy by disparaging ballet and opera.
Appearing at a Friday, March 13, panel at the 2026 SXSW Conference and Festival, the director, 79, seemingly referenced the Marty Supreme star’s recent viral comments, according to Variety.
“At the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with, or into the nighttime with. And there’s nothing like that. It happens in movies, and in concerts,” said Spielberg as he spoke about the importance of movie theaters. “And it happens in ballet and opera, by the way.”
He added, “We want that to be sustained. We want that to go forever.”
Chalamet caused a stir when a clip from his CNN and Variety February 24 town hall with Matthew McConaughey went viral.
“I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theaters alive, we’ve gotta keep this genre alive,’ and another part of me feels like if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it,” he told McConaughey, 56. “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.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”
Acknowledging his comments could be seen as contentious, Chalamet then joked, “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”
Chalamet faced backlash for his take on the creative arts, with celebrities such as Justine Bateman and Doja Cat among those who took aim.
“Ballet, Opera, and Theater work has been around much longer than that of Film and TV,” Bateman, 60, wrote via X on March 9. “Every filmmaker should pray they’re [sic] film/series lasts as long as the work from those enduring performing arts.”
For her part, Doja Cat slammed Chalamet for his opinion that “no one cares” about ballet and opera.
“Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old,” Doja, 30, said via a TikTok video on March 8, calling Chalamet out by name.
“Somebody named Timothée Chalamet — big guy, by the way — had the nerve to say on camera that nobody cares about it,” the “Paint the Town Red” rapper said. “I’m sure you can walk into an opera theater right now, seats will be filled out, and nobody’s saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it.”
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