Veteran actor Nathan Lane was not shy about expressing his views on Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey during his recent appearance on the popular show, The View. The Broadway actor was quick to criticize Chalamet and McConaughey after they made some controversial statements about opera and ballet, sparking an online debate.
Lane was invited on the show and was asked about Chalamet’s recent town hall meeting, in which he expressed his views on how opera and ballet are no longer popular. Nathan Lane was quick to respond.
“‘Oh, what a schmuck,’” Nathan Lane said. Co-host Joy Behar added that Timothée Chalamet “opened his mouth” and got into trouble, but Nathan Lane was not so polite. He added, “Kaleidoscopic in their stupidity and insensitivity.”
The actor also defended traditional performing arts, saying that “classic shows like Swan Lake and La Traviata have been around for years and will continue to bring people out to see them long after someone at a dinner party asks, ‘Who was Timothée Chalamet?’”
Lane also wondered why a town hall meeting involving McConaughey and Chalamet was held in the first place. He jokingly wondered who decided that a “meeting of the minds” between the two actors was necessary.
Politics entered the conversation as Lane jokingly wondered if a town hall meeting about removing Donald Trump from the White House could be more useful.
However, Lane followed up with another jab at Chalamet with a mention of his upcoming movie “Marty Supreme,” in which he plays a competitive ping-pong player.
“I’ve got news for Timmy,” Lane said. “If you think nobody cares about opera and ballet, I can only imagine how much we don’t care about ping-pong.”
He ended his speech with one last attempt at a punchline, which related to the idea of a chaotic debate.
“This may just be a tragic case of terribly unfunny people trying to be funny,” Lane said. “And that always ends in disaster.”
The debate has continued in the form of an online and television debate. Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin of “The View” also attacked Chalamet’s statement “no one cares” about opera and ballet during the same episode of “The View.”
The comments were called “vapid and shallow” by Hostin, while Goldberg advised the actor to be careful when commenting about other forms of art, especially that he is a contender for the Best Actor award in the forthcoming Oscars.
Analysts from the entertainment world, who talked to NextPulseNews (NPN), said that the argument is part of a culture of debate between traditional performing arts and celebrity commentary.
