Chalamet’s takedown of ballet and opera hurt him. Turns out popularity has a downside

March 22, 2026 — 2:00am

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Actor Timothee Chalamet, the puckish young leading-man du jour, has lately discovered the downside to a form of fame powered by a thousand internet posts and lit by a million memes.

For about a decade now, the 30-year-old actor has been one of what is known as the internet’s boyfriends – an arty, non-threatening, emo-ish, quirky young talent, who is just socially awkward enough to feel relatable, even when he’s accepting awards for his acting, flicking his fringe from his eyes as he does so.

He’s handsome in a sweet-faced way that allowed him to be cast as Laurie Laurence in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and also as the young gay teenager discovering his sexuality in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. It helped that he was not the product of a Los Angeles-based fame-system, whereby stars come up through the Disney child-star machine, or perhaps as the offspring of a big Hollywood director.

Chalamet is from an artistic New York family – his mother and sister studied at the School of American Ballet, his sister is also an actor, and he grew up in Manhattan Plaza, a famous New York building which provides affordable housing for performing artists. He even attended the high school that served as the model for the high school in the TV show Fame.

In interviews, he has stressed that he comes “from a theatre background” and talks frequently about his “art”. When he accepted a Screen Actors Guild Award last year he said, “I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats”.

He has compared himself to Daniel Day Lewis and Marlon Brando, and as part of the press tour........

© WA Today