Timothée Chalamet roasted at Oscars for ballet comments, loses best actor

Brendan Morrow and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAYMon, March 16, 2026 at 3:30 AM UTC

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It wasn't a great Oscar night to be Timothée Chalamet.

The "Marty Supreme" star, who has long been blunt about his desire to win an Oscar, again came up short in the best actor race at the end of a ceremony in which he was mocked multiple times for his controversial comments about ballet and opera.

"Security is extremely tight tonight," host Conan O'Brien said in his monologue. "I'm told there's concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities."

Chalamet had drawn criticism from the arts community in recent weeks for saying "no one cares" about ballet and opera during a televised sit-down with Matthew McConaughey.

Timothee Chalamet attends the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on March 15, 2026.

The remarks came up a second time in the Oscars telecast when Alexandre Singh, one of the directors of the best live action short winner "Two People Exchanging Saliva," remarked in his speech, "We believe that art can change people's souls. Maybe it takes 10 year's time, but we can change society through art, through creativity, through theater and ballet."

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Some stars also discussed the controversy on the red carpet, with Josh Groban telling Variety it had an "accidentally positive effect" because it "galvanized people to talk about and celebrate these categories of the arts in a way that might actually not have happened had he not said those things."

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Chalamet was nominated for best actor for "Marty Supreme," a nerve-jangling drama about a cocky table-tennis upstart who is unapologetic about his ambition. The best actor Oscar ultimately went to Michael B. Jordan for his turn as a pair of twins in the acclaimed vampire film "Sinners."

Chalamet was the apparent front-runner early in the season, having won best actor trophies from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. But many Oscar pundits abandoned ship, after Jordan pulled out a surprise win from the Actor Awards on March 1.

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It was a somewhat rocky awards season for Chalamet, who called on scores of famous friends, including Ben Affleck and Edward Norton to host Q&As during a career retrospective of his work in Los Angeles. He sparked backlash last December, after a viral interview clip in which he said that he's been delivering "top-of-the-line performances" that he doesn't want "people to take for granted."

His comments about ballet and opera, which he made while discussing the fact that he does not want movies to lose their cultural relevance, sparked backlash near the very end of awards season, drawing criticism from stars including Steven Spielberg and Misty Copeland. Copeland was present at the Oscars and participated in a musical performance for "Sinners."

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Host Conan O'Brien welcomes viewers and audience members to the Oscars show at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, March 15, 2026.

Chalamet was nominated for best actor twice prior, for the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" and for the 2017 coming-of-age gay romance "Call Me By Your Name."

Had he won for "Marty Supreme," Chalamet would have become the second-youngest person in history to win the best actor prize after Adrien Brody, who won for "The Pianist" in 2003 at age 29. Brody presented the best actor award this year to Jordan.

Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner attend the Oscars on March 15, 2026.Did Timothée Chalamet's controversy cost him the Oscar?

Chalamet's ballet controversy is unlikely to have cost him the Oscar, though, given his statements did not receive much attention until the very last day of Oscar voting.

"Marty Supreme" was very much a labor of love for the A-lister. Not only did he train for more than six years in table tennis, but he also produced the film and crafted an aggressive marketing campaign around it.

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"These last two, three years have been reaffirming the authorship that I had very organically at the beginning of my career, which gets chipped away at in the entertainment industry," Chalamet told USA TODAY last December. "If you're not progressing in life, you're going backwards."

Contributing: Marco della Cava

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2026 Oscars see Timothee Chalamet roasted for ballet controversy

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