Doja Cat deletes video and apologises for attacking Timothee Chalamet

Doja Cat retracted her criticism of Timothée Chalamet, admitting she was "virtue signalling" about opera and ballet. Photo / Getty Images

Doja Cat has backtracked on her remarks criticising Timothee Chalamet after admitting she was “virtue signalling” and “doesn’t know anything” about opera or ballet.

The 30-year-old rapper hit out at the Marty Supreme actor after he claimed “no one cares” about the art forms but she has now deleted her original video because she only spoke out to “feel like [she was] part of something” and has never been to see either.

Doja Cat said in her original video: “By the way, opera is 400 years old and ballet is 500 years old. Somebody named Timothée Chalamet, had the nerve, big guy by the way, had the nerve, on camera [to say] that nobody cares about it.

“I’m pretty sure that if you went to an opera theatre right now, seats will be filled out and nobody saying a word as the performance is going on because everybody has that much respect for it.”

And in a new TikTok video, Doja Cat admitted her comments were made “in the heat of the moment”.

She said: “I am going to come out and say that I know nothing about opera. I know nothing about ballet.

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Doja Cat defends ballet & opera after Timothée Chalamet’s recent comments claiming ‘no one cares’ about it. [via/ TT dojacat]

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“I’ve never been to a ballet. I’ve never seen an opera. And 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.”

After watching several videos about the row surrounding the 30-year-old actor, the Paint the Town Red hitmaker realised she shouldn’t have waded into the controversy because she didn’t know enough about the subject and had spoken out for the wrong reasons.

She said: “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 f*** with me.

“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.”

Doja Cat said she wasn’t proud of her video and was deliberately looking “to be sincere”.

“That was the perfect material for me to seem sincere. But the truth is, I don’t know anything about opera. I don’t know anything about ballet, and I’ve never been to either shows.

“And I think I just wanted a hug. I think that’s all that I wanted. I wanted a hug. I wanted to feel like I was part of something bigger than myself. I wanted to be pat on the back the way everybody else is patting each other on the back in the comments sections.

Doja Cat says she knows nothing about opera and ballet and spoke out to "feel like [she was] part of something". Photo / Getty Images

“And I wanted to look like a hero, and that’s what happened. And when I got it, I didn’t like it so much.”

“It just kind of furthers the fact that sometimes I think s*** and then I’m like, never mind. So never mind.”

Chalamet was talking to Interstellar co-star Matthew McConaughey when they discussed the trend of movies placing their “biggest action set pieces up front”.

Citing Frankenstein as an example of a popular movie that could “pull people in” without “extraordinarily fast” pacing, Chalamet said: “It does take you having to wave a flag of, ‘Hey, this is a serious movie,’ or something, and some people do want to be entertained and quickly.

“I’m really right in the middle, Matthew. I admire people, and I’ve done it myself, who go on a talk show and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep movie theatres alive, we’ve gotta 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.

“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’. All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”