Dancers, Opera Singers Reveal What Timothee Chalamet Got 'Wrong' About Their Art

"We deserve to be respected, even though we aren’t millionaires or dating Kylie Jenner," said one dancer challenging the Hollywood actor.

Timothée Chalamet couldn’t have hit a lower note among his artistic peers last week.

The “Marty Supreme” actor’s recent comments dismissing ballet and opera as arts “no one cares about” led to public ridicule and backlash within the entertainment world, including pushback from legendary Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli and American ballet dancer Misty Copeland.

But it also led to opera and ballet professionals challenging Chalamet with an outpouring of online commentary and videos that showcase their talent, passion and success while emphatically proving that the centuries-old arts are anything but dead.

“He seems to think that art is only valuable if it can produce money and fame for the artist, and that’s just not how art works. The value of art is intrinsic to the art itself, not how much money or fame it can get you,” New York City-based dancer Stefanie Renee Salyers, who spent years studying as a ballet dancer before entering dance theater, told HuffPost. “We deserve to be respected, even though we aren’t millionaires or dating Kylie Jenner.”

Salyers was among those who joined in on challenging Chalamet’s comments on social media, sharing footage of her dance performances and humorously taking a dig at his singing chops in “Wonka.”