Timothée Chalamet's Oscars loss was one of the night's major upsets – and it wasn't just the actor who missed out, but his Marty Supreme co-star Kevin O'Leary who put a last minute bet for $1,000 on Chalamet's success.
The film world gathered on Sunday (15 March) for Hollywood's biggest night, with Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another the big winners of the night. You can find the full list of winners here.
The entrepreneur and Shark Tank star who made his acting debut in Marty Supreme as Milton Rockwell, husband of Gwyneth Paltrow's actor Kay Stone.
While the bookies' odds had Chalamet trailing behind Jordan for the Best Actor – the Sinners star having overtaken Chalamet in recent weeks – O'Leary, 71, was so convinced that the Marty Supreme star was going to win that he bet $1,000 (£752) on it.
Speaking on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, O'Leary told Variety that Chalamet was “a really great guy”, adding: “I just put 1000 bucks on [sports betting site] Kalshi walking in here that he's going to win.”
While Chalamet was previously considered the Best Actor frontrunner for his performance as ambitious table tennis champion Marty Mauser in Josh Safdie's chaotic film, his campaign was seen to nosedive in recent weeks after he claimed that “no one claims” about opera and ballet.
The comments prompted major backlash amongst the cultural industries, with figures including ballet legend Misty Copeland and film director Steven Spielberg responding.
However, O'Leary was insistent that Chalamet's comments wouldn't have impacted his Oscar odds, saying: “I know the voting stops long before that controversy happened. The kid is a great kid. He took a bum rap on that. And by the way, gave a lot of promo to opera houses and ballet.”
The controversy was directly addressed by Conan O'Brien during his opening monologue, who joked: “Security is extremely tight tonight. I’m told there are concerns about attacks from both the opera and ballet communities. They’re just mad you left out jazz!”
Chalamet was then seen laughing at the joke, alongside his girlfriend Kylie Jenner.
The 30-year-old actor had first made the comments while discussing audiences' shortened attention spans with Matthew McConaughey at a CNN and Variety town hall.
In an off-hand remark, Chalamet said: “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera,” Chalamet said, “Where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”
