The paradox with actors is that their professions are based on their appearance and their ability in delivering a performance. Their whole career revolves around them and their presence and what they bring to the table. By that rationale, it’s only fair to say that some actors are completely self-centred. What they sometimes forget is that they are a product: the product is their acting ability and their looks, not necessarily their opinion.

The problem with some thespians is that during interviews or red-carpet Q&A sessions, they can sometimes come across as being, well…quite ignorant and detached from the real world and everything outside of their bubble. Success and popularity are great things for an actor, but there are times when it only inflates and magnifies their ego to such a stupendous level that you can’t help but cringe at their inability to read the room.

Take Timothée Chalamet for example: he and Matthew–‘Alright, Alright, Alright’–McConaughey were shooting the breeze on camera for CNN / Variety (talking about the price of milk in Aldi I assume), when all of a sudden baby-faced Chalamet gets excited and almost wets his pants when he says, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera. Things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this any more.’”

Understandably there has been backlash about his rant; he’s rightfully been criticised by actors, singers, dancers (and venues) on social media for basically pissing all over ballet and opera like he’s Godzilla and they are Japan. And rightly so. Because, in the age of AI slop and garbage AI ‘actors’ like Tilly–dead eyes–Norwood, it’s important to champion all the arts that are created by and starring humans. Because AI is already replacing people and their jobs, and it’s only going to get worse.

Within the next five years our TV and cinema screens will be awash with AI abominations. The average cameraman will be dreaming of the days long gone by when he and his camera were needed on a daily basis. Extras will be a thing of the past. 2nd Unit Teams will be drinking their sorrows at the local bars.

On first viewing, some of these AI movies and TV shows will look impressive. The ’acting’ may even seem good to the average viewer. But do not forget one thing, one iota: all of these AI movies and TV shows will be living off the blood, sweat and tears of every film ever made, every TV show that was ever aired, every screenplay written, created, and conceived by the human race. They will be imitations. Just like the alien antagonist in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Imitations, sucking on the celluloid marrow of 100-plus years of human filmmaking and televised endeavours. 

The future for the arts is still bright though: Once the hype is over, and we’ve seen everything from cats and dogs fighting each other like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris at the Colosseum, once AI movies and TV shows have saturated our screens with so much of their shloppety-slop that the ridiculous and unbelievable becomes the norm, we–us real humans–will eventually seek out that one thing that this dopamine-induced AI coma deprives us of: a real human connection.

The theatre will then thrive once again. Seeing Swan Lake at the ballet will sing to your soul, opting for the opera will leave you breathless afterwards. There is nothing like a real live performance. The best that Netflix offers on its premium subscription doesn’t even come close. 

Cinema is dying. Streaming has practically killed it.  With huge TV screens and soundbars filling even the most modest of homes, going out to the cinema is practically pointless and unrewarding nowadays: Who wants to pay an arm and a leg for some obscenely overpriced drinks and snacks, to sit and consume them in a cold auditorium filled with phone-obsessed audiences ruining your viewing experience? 

As for Timothée Chalamet – he is far from being a leading man like the greats before him (he’s nowhere in the same sport, never mind league, as Hackman, Nicholson, Pacino, De Niro et al). Sure, he might win a couple of gold statues along the way – which says a lot about younger actors and the craft nowadays – but no one is going to the cinema to see a film solely because he is in it. He has absolutely no star power at all.

Even his contemporaries in the 30-40 age range (like Michael B Jordan, Zac Efron, even Daniel Radcliffe) have a presence that I don’t think Chalamet has attained yet. At 30 years old he still looks like an 18 year-old kid. Certainly his aforementioned comments are on par with his looks – childish and immature. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a good actor, just not as great as maybe he thinks he is.

I don’t have a problem with actors or directors not liking opera or ballet either; just don’t come across so sanctimonious when you’re voicing your opinion, that’s all we’re asking for (read the room, Timmy!). In this day and age when people are struggling to make ends meet in the arts, it’s getting really tiresome to hear millionaire actors patronise and diminish another profession that isn’t as popular as their own. There’s an old adage that master Chalamet should take heed of, from Bambi (1942): “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

Here endeth the lesson.

Image attribution:

1) Timothée Chalamet: Harald Krichel / WikiPortraits.

2) Cinema background: www.freepik.com/app