So, when Wilkin heard recent comments by actor Timothée Chalamet dismissing traditional art forms – ballet and opera in particular – essentially calling them “dying,” she was outraged. 

During a town hall interview with Variety and CNN on Feb. 24, Chalamet, alongside Interstellar co-star Matthew McConaughey, discussed the obstacles modern movie theaters face. 

He explored the idea that actors sometimes encourage audiences to “save” cinema. While he said this, he explained that when something truly connects – like big cultural hits – people will naturally show up. In particular, Chalamet discussed movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer. 

After this, came the ballet and opera comments where he said, "And I don't want to be working in ballet or opera, or you know, things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive,' even though it's like, no one cares about this anymore.” 

This comment received extreme backlash online, with artists like singer Doja Cat, Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo and ballerina Misty Copeland weighing in on Chalamet’s comments. 

“I was just shocked at the gall he had to make those comments,” Wilkin said. “Both as a ballet dancer, but also from a more PR perspective, with my marketing background, I naturally also think that way. I was like, ‘Why on earth would you say something like that?’”

According to Marcie Ray, a professor of musicology at MSU, opera began in the late 16th century as an experimental form of art by scholars to recreate the theater of ancient Greece, even though they had no surviving examples of its music. It initially served elite audiences and political power, but after the first public opera house opened in 1637, opera expanded to include broader themes and more diverse audiences.

Since then, opera has served both an elite audience and more popular forms of entertainment for everyone. Today, there are efforts to make it widely accessible and enjoyable for modern audiences again.

“Who knows what Timothée Chalamet meant when he was talking about opera and ballet as a dying art, but it's lasted several centuries,” Ray said. “So if it's been dying, it's been dying for a long time.”

“I mean, anything that's lasted several centuries is obviously going to be resilient in some ways, right?”

Chalamet's comments came on the coattails of a promising Oscar season after being nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Marty Supreme, with the movie itself garnering nine nominations. 

However, during the 98th award ceremony, jokes about his comments took center stage, further amplifying the backlash he received online. Chalamet ultimately lost the Oscar to Michael B. Jordan for his role in Sinners.

MSU Professor of Voice and Opera Theater director Melanie Hilton acknowledged this. 

“The fact that he got roasted the whole evening, and didn't seem too happy about it. Obviously, he doesn't have a very good sense of humor. But, in a way, I think it was kind of good for the art form. I think people are starting to understand and see it now."

Hilton said Chalamet’s grandmother, mother and sister all danced with the New York City Ballet, adding, “That to me is just a sign of, he just wanted to say something controversial.”

“On the one hand, I mean, I had to laugh because it's kind of a beheaded thing to say,” she said. “But there is a point that exposure to these things is not as wide as it used to be.”

Hilton said that when she was growing up, there were television programs that showed opera in a more accessible light, like the Ed Sullivan Show, where “he would have a guy spinning plates, and then he would follow it up with Nureyev and Fontaine dancing the most brilliant ballet dances in the world. There was a lot of visibility of opera and ballet on television.”

“I think once people get into the opera house or the ballet theater, they're hooked for life. Because it is such an intensely visceral art form.”

Hilton highlighted opera’s ability to encompass all forms of art, pointing to the MSU premiere of The Grapes of Wrath by her longtime collaborator Ricky Ian Gordon, which resonated deeply with audiences through its exploration of immigration, starvation, family and tragedy. 

Wilkin and Hilton are also fans of the marketing standpoint Chalamet’s comments took. Multiple theaters, such as The Seattle Opera, offered discounted tickets with the code “Chalamet.”

“A little tongue-in-cheek [is a] great marketing strategy,” Wilkin said. “And it also shows people that ballet companies aren’t just stuck-up ballerinas.”

Since Wilkin joined the MSU Ballet Club executive board and became an instructor in fall 2024, their total class participation has grown from about 50 students to 108 this semester alone, including 51 beginners. 

From Wilkin’s perspective, that shows people are eager to start their ballet journey and learn to dance.

“We are still here, we are still relevant,” Wilkin said, adding how the controversy has united ballet and opera communities while inspiring creative advocacy and educational opportunities.