Charlize Theron joins chorus of disapproval over Timothée Chalamet’s ballet comments | Film
Actor and former ballet dancer Charlize Theron has joined the chorus of condemnation targeting Timothée Chalamet for his remarks that appear to disrespect ballet and opera singers.
In an interview with the New York TimesTheron said: “Oh, I hope I get to meet him one day,” and added: “That was such a reckless comment about two art forms that we need to constantly elevate because, yes, they’re having a hard time. But in 10 years, AI will be able to do Timothée’s job, but it won’t be able to replace a person dancing live on stage.”
Theron, who trained at New York’s Joffrey Ballet as a teenager before a knee injury prevented her from pursuing the arts, also commented on the physical toll dancers pay. “It taught me to be strong. This borders on abuse. I’ve had blood infections a few times with blisters that never heal. And you don’t even get a day off. I’m talking literally bleeding through your shoes.”
“I don’t want to work in ballet or opera… ‘Hey, keep this thing alive even though no one cares about it anymore,'” Chalamet said during a video call with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey in February. High-profile figures such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Sam Taylor-Johnson, ballet star Misty Copeland, Eva Mendes and Helen Hunt have previously expressed their disapproval of Chalamet’s project. Italian filmmaker and opera director Luca Guadagnino, who cast Chalamet in the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name, defended the actor, saying he “didn’t understand how it happened.” [single] “The comment could turn into a global polemic.”
In the interview, Theron also discussed her childhood and teenage years in South Africa; this includes the death of his father after he was shot by his mother in self-defense. Theron described her father as “completely drunk” and said her mother “sent me to boarding school because she specifically wanted me out of the house.”
He described in detail the day of the shooting when his father arrived at their home in Benoni, near Johannesburg, in June 1991 and tried to break in. Theron said: “He shot through the steel doors to get in, making it very clear he was going to kill us… [My mother] He came to my bedroom. Since the door had no lock, we were both holding the door with our bodies. And he stepped back and started shooting through the door. “That’s the crazy part: not a single bullet hit us.”
Theron added: “He walked there. [gun] safe and my mom opened the door… [and] “He followed my father, who was opening the safe to buy more weapons, and shot him.”
Theron’s mother, Gerda, was not sued for the shooting. South Africa’s attorney general ruled it was an act of self-defense. Theron said: “The next morning he sent me to school. He said: ‘We’ll continue. “It worked for us, even though it’s not the healthiest thing to do.”
