Doja Cat is disputing Timothée Chalamet’s viral comment that “no one cares” about ballet and opera anymore.
In an apparently since-deleted TikTok, the 30-year-old rapper challenged the Oscar-nominated star over the controversial remarks he made while attending a celebrity.land and Variety town hall event in Austin, Texas, alongside Matthew McConaughey last month.
During the event, the “Marty Supreme” actor told McConaughey, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.’”
Chalamet appeared to instantly realize his comment could be perceived as insulting, adding, “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there. Damn, I just took shots for no reason.”
After the actor’s comments resurfaced online this week, Doja Cat addressed him in a video clip.
“Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old,” she began before calling out Chalamet directly, mispronouncing his name, perhaps on purpose. “Somebody named Timothée Chalamet, big guy, by the way, had the nerve to say on camera that nobody cares about it.”
Arguing that Chalamet could “walk into an opera theater right now [and] seats will be filled out,” she continued, “and nobody’s saying a word as the performance is going because everybody has that much respect for it.”
“There is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing theater medium. It’s fucking beautiful,” Doja Cat declared. “People go there every day to the dance studio. Dancers show up 8 a.m., 6 a.m., whatever the fuck, they show up, and they break and they bleed every single day, just because they have respect for it. They love it, they love what they do.”
Noting that “it doesn’t matter if the industry is having a tough time,” the musician (born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini) contended that “a lot of industries [are having] a tough time.”
“Your industry has a tough time. My industry has a tough time. Doesn’t mean people don’t care about it. People care. Dancers care. The singers care,” she added. “The audience cares. There’s still an audience. People give a fuck. You show up in a nice outfit, you sit the fuck down, and you shut the fuck up. That’s the usual etiquette around those things.”
Wrapping up her message to the actor, she added that he should “maybe learn something from that.”
Reps for Chalamet didn’t immediately respond to celebrity.land’s request for comment. The “Dune” leading man has not yet publicly responded to Doja Cat’s comments.
Doja Cat isn’t the only celebrity who has taken issue with Chalamet’s viral diss.
Chalamet was torched on “The View,” with co-host Sunny Hostin revealing she was “offended” and “disappointed” by his comments as a member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a Black classical ballet troupe.
“I didn’t realize that he was that vapid and that shallow,” she said of the 30-year-old actor.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg slammed Chalamet for criticizing the arts while pointing out that he comes from a “dance family.” The American-French actor’s mother (Nicole Flender), grandmother (Enid Flender), and sister (Pauline Chalamet) have all danced with the New York City Ballet.
“When you crap on somebody else’s art form, it doesn’t feel good,” Goldberg added. “It doesn’t feel good to see, and you probably didn’t realize that until you said, ‘Oh, I’m in trouble’ … So be careful. I’m just saying, be careful, boy.”
After reiterating that Chalamet’s family has a strong dance background, co-host Sarah Haines joked that “this seems like a family issue.”
Multiple ballet and opera companies have also rebuked Chalamet’s dig.
The Los Angeles Opera wrote on Instagram, “Sorry, @tchalamet. We’d offer you complimentary tickets to Akhnaten, but it’s selling out. There are a few seats left to purchase if you hurry.”
London’s Royal Ballet and Opera said in an Instagram post, “Every night at the Royal Opera House, thousands of people gather for ballet and opera. For the music. For the storytelling. For the sheer magic of live performance. If you’d like to reconsider, @tchalamet, our doors are open.”
Tagging Chalamet in a post, the Metropolitan Opera wrote on Instagram, “All respect to the opera (and ballet) people out there.”
The Metropolitan Opera added in the caption: “This one’s for you, @tchalamet… [eyes emoji]”
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