Earlier in the year, actor Timothée Chalamet landed himself in a bit of hot water online after making comments disregarding the importance of opera and ballet in modern society. "I don't want to be working in ballet or opera, or things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive.' Even though it's like, no one cares about this anymore," Chalamet said, earning the ire of fans of both art forms.
Chatting with The New York Times, actress Charlize Theron spoke out against Chalamet's comments, saying that while what he does is replaceable, ballet and opera are not. "I hope I run into him one day. That was 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. 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," she said.
Theron continued: "And we shouldn't sh*t on other art forms. Dance taught me discipline. It taught structure. It taught hard work. It taught me to be tough. It's borderline abusive. There were several times that I had blood infections from blisters that just never healed. And you don't get a day off. I'm literally talking about bleeding through your shoes. And that's something that you have to practice every single day, the mind-set of just, you don't give up, there's no other option, you keep going."
It's easy to see where Theron is coming from, but perhaps the AI comment is only going to create similar levels of backlash to Chalamet's own outburst. No one is a fan of jobs being replaced by AI, except the tech bros making the AI, and so to hope for a future where Chalamet's gone and AI is in might not prove a popular take.
