Doja Cat doesn’t want to be a part of an Internet ambush. The rapper is backtracking her response to Timothée Chalamet’s controversial comments about opera and ballet, where he insinuated that they were dying art forms. In a since-deleted TikTok video, she called out the actor specifically, but now, she regrets participating in the viral discourse.
In a new TikTok video, posted on March 10, Doja clarified that she’s never seen an opera or been to the ballet, despite taking ballet for several years as a child. She gave insight into why she felt compelled to speak out about his comments.
“I took it upon myself yesterday to ‘give it to the man’ because there is a culture based around outrage,” she said. “What I was doing yesterday was virtue signaling because… I knew Timothée’s goof-up was something that I could leverage in order for people to connect with me and f*ck with me. And it’s easy. It’s a modern way to garner clicks, likes, approval, all kinds of things.”
However, she said she didn’t give proper thought as to why she wanted to call him out until after posting her video. “I wanted to feel like I was part of something bigger than myself,” she said. “I wanted to be pat[ted] on the back the way everybody else is patting each other on the back in the comments sections. And I wanted to look like a hero, and that’s what happened.”
What Did Doja Say?
In her initial response, Doja gave a history lesson on opera and ballet before calling out “big guy” Chalamet for his comments, noting that their own industries also go through tough times, but that “doesn’t mean people don’t care about it.”
“Dancers show up [at] 8 a.m., 6 a.m. whatever the f*** [time] they show up, and they break, and they bleed every single day just because they have respect for it,” she said, before telling Chalamet to take lessons from ballet and opera’s etiquette. “You show up in a nice outfit, you sit the f*ck down and you shut the f*ck up. That’s the usual etiquette around those things.”
However, Doja was inspired to backtrack after watching another unspecified TikToker, who was more well-versed on opera and ballet but agreed with Chalamet’s perspective (albeit not the way he said it), and realizing she was acting on impulse.
“It just kind of furthers the fact that sometimes I think sh*t, and then I’m like, ‘Never mind,’” she said. “So never mind.”
