Timothée Chalamet’s mother, Nicole Flender, has clarified that he did not take ballet lessons as a child.
His mother made the clarification during a speech at the American Ballet Theater Spring Gala on May 20, saying it was the actor’s sister who trained in ballet, not Chalamet.
Flender said: “Timmy didn’t take ballet lessons. My daughter did.”
She added that both she and Chalamet’s sister, Pauline Chalamet, studied at the School of American Ballet.
“Timmy danced himself,” the 68-year-old Flender added. “You know, he was a high school rap artist, so he was doing his own thing.”
The clarification comes after Chalamet made comments about ballet and opera during a public panel in February. He immediately faced backlash from people in the performing arts because they said he didn’t want to work in fields that needed constant support to survive.
“I don’t want to work in ballet or opera or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive even if no one cares about it anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there,” he said during the panel.
The actor then joked, “I just lost 14 cents in viewers, just taking pictures for no reason.”
Shortly afterwards, a children’s video of Chalamet in a ballet production surfaced online. The clip led many to assume that he had trained in ballet as a child.
Chalamet later said that he grew up dancing because of his family background. “My grandmother danced in the New York City Ballet, my mother danced in the New York City Ballet, my sister danced in the New York City Ballet,” he told a reporter.
“I grew up with big dreams backstage at the Koch Theater in New York.”
