CHEERS TO…BEING COOL AGAIN
Cheers to everything old being new cool again.
This week Timothée Chalamet copped backlash after suggesting he wouldn’t want to work in ballet or opera because they’re art forms where people are constantly trying to “keep the thing alive…no one cares about them anymore”
Which is a fascinating stance from…an actor.
Acting is also one of the oldest art forms in the world. Ancient Greece called. Shakespeare too. The entire film industry - including Chalamet’s own career - sits squarely on top of theatrical traditions that have been around for thousands of years.
So the idea that ballet and opera are outdated while cinema remains culturally relevant is, let’s say, a bold reading of history.
But what makes the whole thing even more interesting is the context.
Because at the exact same time, Kylie Jenner is on the cover of Vanity Fair, looking like she’s stepped straight out of a 90s Dolce & Gabanna shoot and lighting up a Marlboro, once again proving my long-held theory correct: smoking is back.
Between the two of them - Chalamet, the brooding arthouse actor, and Kylie, the billionaire reality-TV-turned-beauty-mogul - you’re basically looking at the entire Gen Z cultural zeitgeist in one relationship.
High art and internet culture.
Method acting and lip kits.
The Oscars and TikTok.
Cigarettes and skincare.
Which is why it’s so strange that he - the supposed serious one - is the one suggesting traditional art forms are irrelevant.
Because ballet and opera aren’t relics. Theatre gave us acting. Opera gave us cinematic drama. The spectacle of modern film owes more to those stages than anyone in Hollywood (under 30 at least) will admit.
And if people are still fighting to keep ballet and opera alive? Good.
But in a culture where smoking is back in Vogue (Menthol Slims), Y2K is trending, and Kylie Jenner is on the cover of Vanity Fair with a cigarette, declaring anything “over” feels wildly optimistic.
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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