Timothée Chalamet and Jessie Buckley have both found themselves at the centre of controversy just days before the Oscars, after remarks made during awards season triggered a storm online. Although the Academy Award winners have already been determined as voting closed on 4th March, the backlash can’t alter the outcome now, but it has still risked overshadowing what had been highly successful campaigns for both stars.

Timothée had been regarded as one of the prominent names in the Best Actor race thanks to his performance in Marty Supreme, whilst Jessie has remained a strong favourite in the Best Actress category for her role in Hamnet. As the final phase of the campaign unfolded, both actors have faced criticism over comments that went viral and attracted disapproval from fans.

Beginning with Timothée, the 30-year-old encountered criticism after discussing the type of projects he wants to be involved in, and seemed to dismiss ballet and opera in the process. Speaking to fellow actor Matthew McConaughey, he said: “I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, doing a talk show about how we’ve got to keep movie theatres alive, you know, we’ve got to keep this genre alive.

“And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it, like Barbie, like Oppenheimer, they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it. And I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera or, you know, things where it’s like, ‘hey, keep this thing alive’, even though no one cares about this any more.

“All respect to the ballet and opera people out there, I just lost 14 cents in viewership, I just took shots for no reason.”

The remarks prompted an immediate reaction from figures in both industries, who accused the actor of being dismissive and out of touch.

Opera singer Isabel Leonard hit back, writing: “Honestly, I’m shocked that someone so seemingly successful can be so ineloquent and narrow-minded in his views about art whilst considering himself as an artist as I would only imagine one would as an actor.

“To take cheap shots at fellow artists says more in this interview than anything else he could say. Shows a lot about his character.”

Jessie, meanwhile, found herself in hot water after an old interview resurfaced in which she joked about making her now-husband choose between her and his cats. Speaking in the original interview, she said: “I don’t like cats,” before later revealing: “My husband, when I started dating him, he had two cats… This is bad as well. I’m gonna get cancelled.

“One of the cats was like a pedigree model b*tch, and she staged a coup against me. I’d come home, and there’d just be poo on my pillow. And I was like, ‘it’s me or the cats’. But I won!”

The clip rapidly circulated online, with some viewers labelling the remarks heartless and others accusing her of attempting to laugh off an ultimatum.

Jessie subsequently addressed the controversy on US television, maintaining she had been misunderstood and wished to set the record straight. She said: “I need to clarify something for all cat lovers in the world. I am a lover of cats. I woke up this morning to the world thinking I really don’t love cats and it really weighed on me all day. I felt sick.”