Royal Ballet and Opera chief executive Alex Beard has said ticket sales got an "immediate boost" after Timothée Chalamet’s remarks about ballet and opera sparked a backlash.
The Marty Supreme actor drew criticism after saying he did not want to work in ballet, opera or in art forms where people felt they had to persuade audiences to care.
Speaking to The Times, Beard said the reaction proved a boost for the company and its social media response struck a chord with audiences.
"The public reaction was just fantastic," he said.
"I thought it important that we didn’t issue a kind of hoity-toity response to Chalamet.
"We simply said, 'Take a look at what we’re doing, mate’ - for instance, the fact that the largest portion of our audience by age is 20 to 30-year-olds.
"And you know what? Our post got two-and-a-half million engagements and half a million shares, just on Instagram. And our ticket sales got an immediate boost. So cheers, Timmy!"
Chalamet made the remarks during a conversation with Matthew McConaughey for CNN and Variety about the future of cinema.
He said: "I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or, you know, things where it’s like, ‘hey, keep this thing alive’, even though no-one cares about this any more."
Royal Ballet and Opera responded on Instagram by sharing footage of its performers and craftspeople at work and inviting the actor to reconsider.
"Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance," the post said.
"If you’d like to reconsider, our doors are open."
Other companies also joined in. English National Opera invited Chalamet to a performance, while Seattle Opera offered 14% off tickets for its production of Carmen with the promo code Timothee. The Metropolitan Opera also posted a behind-the-scenes video in support of opera and ballet workers.
Source: Press Association
