Charlize Theron has broken her silence following her shock comments that predicted a bleak future for fellow movie star Timothée Chalamet.
This week, Oscar-winning Theron weighed in on Chalamet’s controversial dismissal of opera and ballet that blew up after an interview with fellow actor Matthew McConaughey in February.
The star, who trained in ballet before becoming an actress, addressed Chalamet’s comments in The New York Times, where she called dancers “superheroes” for the feats they put their bodies through.
Saying she hoped to run into Chalamet one day, the Mad Max: Fury Road star said he made “a very reckless comment on an art form, two art forms, that we need to lift up constantly because yes, they do have a hard time.”
She added, “But in 10 years, AI is going to be able to do Timothée’s job, but it will not be able to replace a person on a stage dancing live. And we shouldn’t s--t on other art forms.”
Theron, 50, has now clarified her prediction for the 30-year-old Marty Supreme star.
“Honestly, I talked out of my a--,” she told Variety at the New York premiere of her new movie Apex on Wednesday.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, okay? Nobody does... But I assume that a living, live performance would be hard (to replicate). And then someone’s like, ‘There’s a dancing robot in Hong Kong’ — but he’s not (ballet dancer) Misty Copeland, OK?"
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years,” she continued. “I think we’re all taking it day by day. I got to make this movie (Apex) and it’s not AI, it’s me, so things are good.”
Theron underwent rock-climbing training for the Netflix film, which sees her play a grieving woman on a solo adventure in the Australian wild who becomes trapped in a twisted game with a cunning killer. It also stars Taron Egerton and Eric Bana. It is released on April 24.
Chalamet raised eyebrows with his comments during a Variety/CNN town hall at the University of Texas in February.
“I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore,’” Chalamet told McConaughey, before laughing and adding, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there...”
The two actors were discussing the need to preserve cinema by making films people will want to pay to see.
Theron trained as a ballet dancer, performing in both Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, and left her native South Africa to join the Joffrey Ballet in New York. An injured knee saw her focus on acting over dancing.
Theron was not the only performer to call out Chalamet’s comments on ballet and opera, or the influence of technology on the arts.
“If anything, in a world where AI is reshaping cinema faster than most realize, the unmediated human presence of ballet and opera becomes more essential, not less,” choreographer Martin Chaix said. “I hope he finds his way into a theatre.”
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis wrote in an Instagram story, “Why are any artists taking shots at any other artists?”
