Timothée Chalamet has sparked a wave of online criticism for saying that “no one cares” about opera and ballet anymore in a recent CNN and Variety town hall event with actor Matthew McConaughey.

Timothée Chalamet. Photo © Raph_PH/Wikimedia Commons

“I don’t wanna be working in ballet or opera… things where it’s like, ‘Keep this thing alive’, even though no one cares about this anymore; all respect to the ballet and opera people out there,” Chalamet said.

“All respect to the ballet and opera people out there; I just lost 14 cents in viewership.”

Spoken in the frame of a discussion about his desire to keep the medium of film alive, his commments have stirred responses from fine arts fans and organisations from around the world, including some from Australia.

On Instagram, Opera Australia fires back with a collection of opera-related memes featuring Chalamet as a tearful Elio from the final scene of Call me By Your Name, asking followers “what opera moment do you *care* about so much that it always moves you to full-body heaving, ugly tears?”

West Australia Ballet has posted a compilation of its favourite Instagram comments responding to the actor,...