Nathan Lane went scorched-earth on Timothée Chalamet during an appearance on The View.
Lane, a legendary theater veteran and Emmy winner, told hosts on Thursday that Chalamet is a “schmuck” for being dismissive of ballet and opera.
The View’s Joy Behar tried to defend the Oscar-nominated star, telling Lane, “He opened his mouth, poor guy, leave him alone.”
But the Broadway star, 70, didn’t back down. Instead, he only escalated his verbal attack on Chalamet, 30.
“Well, one doesn’t want to give this more attention than it deserves. And yet...” Lane continued. “It was kind of kaleidoscopic in its stupidity and insensitivity, and yet strangely telling about where we are in this country.”
“Let me explain,” he said. “First of all, one should remember, people will be going to see Swan Lake and La Traviata long after someone at a dinner party says, ‘Who was Timothée Chalamet?’ It’s the show business circle of life.”
The Marty Supreme star came under fire for his remarks during a Variety/CNN town hall on Feb. 24 with Matthew McConaughey.
“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 as they spoke about the future of cinema. “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there...”
“I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I’m taking shots for no reason,” he continued.
Chalamet’s remarks quickly spiralled into a full-blown controversy. He has faced mounting criticism over his words, from opera houses, dancers, choreographers, performers, and fellow actors like Jamie Lee Curtis.
Lane went as far as to question the validity of the conversation between the two actors, which took place just weeks before this year’s Academy Awards. For his role in Marty Supreme, hailed as one of 2025’s best films, Chalamet is nominated for Best Actor.
“The bigger question is: Why was there a town hall meeting with Matthew McConaughey and Timothée Chalamet? I mean, who deemed this meeting of the minds necessary?” Lane joked.
“Why isn’t there a town hall meeting with Democrats discussing how to get this lunatic out of the White House? Then I realized, ‘Oh, he’s still promoting that endless ping pong movie,” he continued, slamming Marty Supreme. “And, you know, I’ve got news for Timmy: If you think nobody cares about opera and ballet, I can’t tell you how much we don’t care about ping pong.”
Lane concluded that the comments “may just be a tragic case of terribly unfunny people trying to be funny.”
The controversy ramped up just as Chalamet’s spot as a frontrunner in this year’s Academy Awards race was slipping. He is nominated alongside heavyweights Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon, and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent.
For most of this awards season, it was assumed that Chalamet would take home his first Oscar this coming Sunday night. But after losing the Actor Award to Jordan, he fell into second place in the betting odds.
