Doja Cat has backpedalled on her stance regarding Timothée Chalamet’s ballet and opera comments as the controversy rolls on.
The Marty Supreme star told Matthew McConaughey at a recent event produced by Variety and CNN at the University Of Texas that he didn’t want cinemas to end up like “ballet or opera” where “no one cares” anymore.
The remarks led to an outpouring of criticism, not least from ballet dancers and opera singers themselves, and Doja Cat also weighed in.
In a now-deleted TikTok post, she told him that “people give a fuck” about opera and ballet, telling him that the art forms are hundreds of years old and adding: You show up in a nice outfit. You sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. That’s the usual etiquette around those things. Maybe learn something from that.”
Now, in a new TikTok video, she has walked back her comments, admitted that she knows “nothing about opera” or ballet, has never seen either in person, and said that she was simply “virtue signalling” in her previous post.
@dojacat
“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 added.
“What I was doing yesterday was virtue signalling because I wanted to connect and I knew that Timothée’s goof up was something that I could leverage in order for people to connect with me and fuck with me.”
She continued: “And it’s easy. It’s a modern way to garner clicks, likes, approval and all kinds of things like that from people. And so I did that yesterday, and I didn’t really think about why I was doing it.”
The rapper finished by saying that she “just wanted a hug” and to “feel like I was part of something bigger than myself” when she joined in with the criticism.
She wasn’t alone in reacting negatively to the comments at the time, however. The likes of Whoopi Goldberg, ballet dancer Victor Caixeta and choreographer and ‘Eras’ tour dancer Kam Saunders were also among those to criticise Chalamet, while ballet star Misty Copeland asked Chalamet why he invited her to promote Marty Supreme with her.
Opera legend Andrea Bocelli also responded, saying: “I believe we often tend to keep our distance from what we have not yet truly encountered … They are not arts of the past, but living languages that can still move us, make us reflect, and bring different generations together.”
Chalamet has not yet publicly addressed his comments or the controversy surrounding them.
The actor is looking to the Oscars, which take place on Sunday (March 15). The actor is up for Best Actor in a Leading Role for playing Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme, while he’s also up for Best Picture as a co-producer of the sports comedy-drama.
Aged 30, he is the youngest actor to earn three acting nominations since Marlon Brando – he was nominated for Call Me By Your Name in 2018 and A Complete Unknown in 2025 – and is the youngest person ever to be nominated for both acting and producing in the same year.
Doja Cat, meanwhile, is currently in the middle of her huge ‘Tour Ma Vie’ world tour. It began in New Zealand last year before heading to Australia and Asia, and she played South America and Mexico in February.
Later this month, the rapper has shows in Rwanda and South Africa, before a show in Bahrain in May and then a run of UK and European shows – find remaining tickets here. She’s then set to wrap up the tour in the autumn with a series of North American dates, and you can find tickets here.