Viewers convinced by 'real story' behind Timothée Chalamet's Oscar loss after unexpected controversy
Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor at this year's Oscars
Timothée Chalamet didn’t win an Oscar. Was it just bad luck, or was there an organised effort to lower his chances?
Chalamet has been nominated for three Academy Awards, securing noms for his performances in Call Me By Your Name, A Complete Unknown, and, most recently, Marty Supreme (our best movie of 2025).
If you asked any Oscars pundit late last year, they would have said he had Best Actor on lock (much like Jessie Buckley for Hamnet).
Alas, the 98th Academy Awards didn’t go his way, with Michael B. Jordan winning in his category for his role in Sinners.
Did Timothée Chalamet cost himself the Oscar?
Chalamet is already a slightly divisive figure. His performances have been widely acclaimed, but the way he talks about acting has polarised people in the past.
For example, after winning the SAG Award last year, he told the crowd, “I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I wanna be one of the greats, I’m inspired by the greats… and I wanna be up there.”
He was long considered the favourite for this year’s Best Actor, even though he was up against Leonardo DiCaprio, Jordan, Wagner Moura, and Ethan Hawke.
Unfortunately, he inadvertently caused some backlash with recent comments about ballet and opera.
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Ok I did not hear this. This sucks pic.twitter.com/O2ZW26zHrb
— Seth Abramovitch (@SethAbramovitch) March 5, 2026
In a lengthy CNN interview with Matthew McConaughey, he partly dismissed both art forms because of their lower popularity than movies.
“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,'” he said.
“All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there,” he added, as McConaughey laughed. “I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason.”
Oscars viewers think there was a Timothée Chalamet ‘smear campaign’
To be clear, Chalamet made those comments on his own accord. Also, contrary to (incorrect) claims online, his remarks weren’t from years ago: they were part of a 70-minute video shared by Variety and CNN on February 24, 2026.
The question is: was Chalamet the victim of a smear campaign to kill his Oscar chances?
It has become an increasingly prevalent theory in the wake of the ceremony. “The real story here is that someone ran a smear campaign against Chalamet and it probably worked,” one user wrote on X.
“Poor Timmy Chalamet. Someone’s clearly coming after him and the smear campaign seems to be working,” another user wrote ahead of the Oscars.
“He’ll continue to make great films. But what this obvious smear job has done is it has turned off a lot of people. I cannot wait till this Oscar season is over,” a third theorised.
Final voting for the Oscars opened on February 26, just two days after Chalamet’s comments initially emerged. It’s worth noting that they didn’t go viral until early March, with voting officially closing on March 5.
“Oscar voting had already ended so anyone criticising Chalamet now, quite literally can’t hurt his Oscar chances,” one user earlier argued.
Smear campaigns aren’t unprecedented during awards season. Harvey Weinstein became notorious for his campaign tactics, said to have gone to great, sneaky lengths to discredit his competitors.
Whether or not there was a coordinated effort against Chalamet will likely never be revealed. However, here’s a safe bet: he’ll probably never talk about ballet or opera ever again.
Read more: The annoying reason Robert Aramayo won’t win an Oscar for ‘incredible’ performance in I Swear
