Timothée Chalamet has upset opera and ballet fans a week before the Oscars

A conversation between Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and Best Actor nominee Timothée Chalamet at the University of Texas in February went viral over the weekend.

But rather than creating buzz about the motion picture arts, the “Marty Supreme” actor has drawn ire over his comments about the classical arts instead:

“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.”

Now, with less than a week to go before the 98th Academy Awards, backlash from the ballet and opera worlds has already seen traders on prediction markets react in favor of another Best Actor hopeful.

On March 7, the market-implied probability of “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan winning the Best Actor award at the Oscars climbed as high as 51%, while Chalamet’s sank to 39%, down from 56% just a day prior. Zooming out, Jordan’s odds had already seen a 17-point bump intraday on March 3 after scooping the prize at the Actor Awards at the start of the month.

As of Monday morning, there is just a 4-point difference between the actors’ market-implied odds. With both about 40 points ahead of the other nominees on the event contract at the time of writing, traders seem to think that Sunday will be a two-horse race for this award in particular.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Let slipper

Final voting for this year’s Academy Awards officially closed on March 5, having opened on February 26 — which means that the recent outcry over Chalamet’s comments can’t really have had any true impact on his chances of scooping the Best Actor Oscar this coming weekend.

Still, the ballet and opera communities have voiced their frustrations with the actor’s recent comments, drawing responses from industry icons, the UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera, the actor’s old school, and the Metropolitan Opera, America’s biggest opera institution.

While the notable retaliation goes some way in proving that people do still “care” about the art forms, the Met Opera’s mounting financial woes have seen the institution turn to the likes of Saudi Arabia and Elon Musk to try and help sustain its business, The New York Times reported yesterday.

Looking at the Met’s financial reports, the company has started to tap into its endowment fund to offset mounting expenses, as ticket revenues continue to shrink. Per the NYT, the size of its endowment fund has decreased by one-third since 2022 to just $212 million today.

Keep “Carmen,” Carry On

Due to rising production costs, the 2026-27 season will be the Met’s smallest in at least 60 years, with just 17 productions on the slate.

Naturally, though, it’s leaning into the classics: 71 of the 187 individual opera performances this year will be across “La Bohème,” “Aida,” and “Tosca” — all of which are among the Met’s top 5 most performed operas ever... and all of which were last shown in 2025.