Timothy Ballet-men

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Natasha, aka Nats my Gen Z neighbour, came over, dancing on her toes, like a ballerina. But through that seemingly dainty movement, I could tell that she was battling a huge crisis, a massive intellectual, enigmatic query was going through that 19-year-old mind.

"Whatup Rahul, bruh," she said and pirouetted into my home.

"Hmmm… You're bounding about, Nats, but I sense your inner tornado is swirling. Speak to me?" (Double eye roll)

"Uhm… OK, I'm a huge Timothée Chalamet fan", she announced categorically, and stopped.

"Is that it, or do you mean something more than that?" I asked.

"Bruh, I think it's obvio that he is one of the top actors of his generation. Look what he's managed at 30. He's cracked the massive franchise formula with the Dune series. Last year he should have won the Oscar with his insane biopic on Bob Dylan, A Complete Unknown. Did you see it, bro, since you love Dylan's music so much?"

"Yes. I did - "

"And Marty Supreme, dude, what a performance - he made magic out of the life of a ping pong player, the speed at which the movie moved… such versatility, awesome, so villainous and yet so badass."

"Why you telling me all this, Nats?"

"Because they robbed him of the Best Oscar."

"Robbed him, how? Michael B Jordan deserved it."

"Dude, if Timmy hadn't made those comments about ballet and opera, about those art forms being outdated and stuff, if he hadn't pissed off half the world… He would have won. They punished him for his ‘out of turn' remarks. Not fair, I feel."

"Yeah, maybe the comments weren't necessary… maybe he shouldn't have made the comments so close to the awards night."

"But dude, it's how he felt. You may not agree, but what an artist says or feel can't impact his work, right?"

"Hmmm that's debatable - "

‘Meaning what?"

"Not saying that all great masters need to be great people. Picasso wasn't the nicest guy, nor Sinatra, or Presley, but we're living in a dangerously close microscope in this age of social media.

But for me the jury is still out on that. Still not sure about how I feel about, let's take another artiste - Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters's frontman. Great musician, no question, positioned himself as the nicest guy in rock music, and then details about his personal life came out - how he's treated band members - and I feel differently about him," I paused. "I'm somehow not able to move past it."

Nats was looking at me intently.

"So, bruh, you're saying that a man can be denied what is deservedly his - this is the actor of his generation. He may lack all the sophistication that is required of him, call it machismo, call it lack of maturity…
He makes certain comments, those comments are plucked out of context, and bang, suddenly the world is against him. Timothée Chalamet is suddenly public enemy no 1. Comedians, news anchors, fellow stars, musicians, the self-righteous, has-beens, wannabes, everyone wants to rip out a piece of flesh."

And so we agreed to disagree… For me, Chalamet's comments - a few days before the final Oscars voting day - a nail in the coffin for his chances. Natasha's firm belief, that his Marty Supreme performance should be the only criteria. It's a to-be-continued conversation.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, filmmaker and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com