Timothee Chalamet Is Making Professional Wrestling Fans Look Bad

I’ve had to meet a lot of other parents since my kids started going to school. I already have to guard myself a bit, since we live in an area where most people have fancy tech and marketing jobs, while my wife and I work in the arts. We punched above our weight and found an affordable place to live in a sea of expense. Seriously, there are like two boutique pet grooming shops within two blocks of each other in my neighborhood. But I’ve never been embarrassed about not making as much money as the folks around us. My professional wrestling fandom? Different story.

There are wrestling fans of all backgrounds. It has also seen a massive spike in popularity in recent years, due, in part at least, to the fact that wrestlers rarely try to pretend that it’s “real” anymore. The bumps and bruises are not fake, but people don’t have to give interviews in camera anymore. They can speak more honestly about the business. When it’s not presented as something meant to pull the wool over your eyes, then people can be a bit more accepting. Regardless, there is still a stigma surrounding it.

I don’t know if I can say exactly what it is, as I am on the other side of the debate, but folks often view professional wrestling as less than. It’s more of a sideshow attraction than actual art. That’s BS for a whole host of reasons, but it happens. Just the other night, I revealed to new family friends that I was a big fan of wrestling as they (graciously and kindly) doled out wine and cheese for us. The response was… polite, but they tried to move on pretty quickly, even though I swear I was bringing it up for topical reasons. I swear!

And, look, I won’t pretend that wrestling is some kind of high art. It isn’t ballet or opera. But the people involved still work their butts off, and they are entertainers through and through. That’s why I was pretty psyched to see Timothee Chalamet recently make the rounds on some wrestling podcasts (or at least one that saw a lot of clips be shared around). He was talking about it with the level of respect it deserves, and dropping some pretty deep cuts. He’s clearly a fan, and I appreciated him bringing it up while on his Oscar run. And that’s all he’s talked about! End of piece (I wish).

Ol’ Timmy boy hasn’t just been talking about wrestling. He also recently took some shots at ballet and opera, essentially calling them antiquated and expressing his relief that he doesn’t participate in either because they aren’t what he considers popular. It was a dumb, disrespectful thing to say, and it has unleashed a wave of rightfully angry theater kids who have relished the chance to make a big deal out of something (as is their way). Timmy’s comments are not only offensive to people working in (or just enjoying) those art forms, they’re just frigging stupid.

Coincidentally enough, they make Chalamet sound like a bit of a rube. That’s an old carny term for bumpkin or simpleton, if you will. For someone who presents themselves as this worldly actor, it made him seem rather small. The whole thing is even worse when coupled with his open love of professional wrestling. He may as well have said he doesn’t read while he was at it. Wrestling is certainly more accepted than it used to be, but if people like Timothee Chalamet profess their love of wrestling with one breath while admitting their lack of culture with the next, I’ll keep getting polite-yet-weird looks at dinner parties.