Timothée Chalamet found himself in hot water recently after criticising ballet and opera, describing them as art forms ‘no one cares about’.
The Marty Supreme actor was in conversation with Matthew McConaughey at the University of Texas in February when he made the remarks, which were then posted to YouTube by Variety.
While talking about efforts to preserve cinema, Timothée brazenly said: ‘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.’
Despite backtracking on his comment — which he immediately knew was controversial — the damage was done. Because soon after, the actor received an influx of backlash online.
One famous face who responded to the drama was Doja Cat, who posted a now-deleted TikTok video condemning Timothée’s comments.
Mentioning the Oscar nominee by name, she said: ‘Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old. Somebody named Timothée Chalamet, big guy, by the way, had the nerve to say on camera that nobody cares about it.’
The Grammy winner then stated that she’s ‘sure’ you can ‘walk into an opera theatre right now, seats will be filled out, and nobody’s saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it.’
She concluded her video stating that ‘there is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing theatre medium. It’s f****** beautiful.’
However, Doja Cat has now retracted her comments, admitting in a new TikTok video that she was ‘virtue signalling.’
The 30-year-old musician also confessed that she knows ‘nothing about opera’ and ‘nothing about ballet,’ and has never been to a performance of either art form.
Doja explained: ‘I took it upon myself yesterday to kind of give it to the man because there is a culture based around outrage and things like that, and people want to feel like they’re part of something. It’s a need to connect, whether good or bad.’
She continued: ‘What I was doing yesterday was virtue signalling,’ adding that she ‘wanted to connect’ and knew that she could ‘leverage Timothee’s goof up’ for people to ‘connect’ with her.
Later in the video, Doja stated that, in the moment, she had not considered why she decided to weigh in on that specific situation. But she did acknowledge that it’s a ‘modern way to garner clicks, likes and approval,’ and was an easy way to draw attention to herself online.
Doja, who is known on TikTok for her comedic lip-syncing videos, rounded off the apology by stating that she ‘just wanted a hug.’
‘I wanted to feel like I was part of something bigger than myself. I wanted to look like a hero.’
Following the admission, plenty of fans took to the musician’s defence and questioned why she was apologising in the first place.
‘I mean nothing u said in ur video was bad tho?’ one person penned, to which Doja replied: ‘I’m not saying it was I’m saying I wasn’t coming from a genuine place.’
Another commenter pondered whether the response was because of pressure from Doja’s label.
However, the ‘Woman’ singer quickly shut this suggestion down, and responded with: ‘No nobody hit me up I just felt like a fraud cuz I literally have never even been to an opera or a ballet and I think my mistake gave me an opportunity to actually be authentic.’
