Doja Cat calls out Timothée Chalamet over controversial opera and ballet comments: 'People give a f---'
Doja Cat calls out Timothée Chalamet over controversial opera and ballet comments: 'People give a f---'
Shania RussellMon, March 9, 2026 at 5:19 PM UTC
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Doja Cat and Timothée ChalametCredit: Frazer Harrison/Getty; Karwai Tang/WireImage
Doja Cat is joining the Timothée Chalamet dogpile as the actor faces continued backlash for his controversial comments about ballet and opera.
Chalamet recently drew the ire of the theater community after stating in an offhanded remark that "no one cares" anymore about the two art forms. But if you ask Doja, the Marty Supreme actor still has much to learn about the subject.
"Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old," Doja said in a Sunday, March 8 TikTok video which has since been deleted. "Somebody named Tim-oh-tay Cha-lam-et had the nerve to say — on camera — that nobody cares about it. I’m sure you can walk into an opera theater 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."
The Grammy winner, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, continued, "There is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing theater medium. It’s f---ing beautiful and people go there every day to the dance studio. Dancers show up at 8am, 6am. They show up and they break and they bleed, every single day. Just because they have respect for it."
Doja CatCredit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty
The "Paint the Town Red" singer went on to highlight the reverence that dancers and singers have for their respective art forms, arguing that they deserve respect regardless of how the industry is performing at any given moment.
"They love what they do. It doesn’t matter if the industry is having a tough time at any time, which a lot of industries have a tough time," she pointed out. "Your industry has a tough time. My industry has a tough time. Doesn’t mean people don’t care about it. People care."
She concluded, "The dancers care, the singers care, the audience cares. There’s still an audience. People give a f---. You show up in a nice outfit. You sit the f--- down and shut the f--- up. That’s the usual etiquette around those things. Maybe learn something from that."
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Chalamet for comment.
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Chalamet has been under fire ever since the comments he made at a February CNN/Variety town hall interview went viral on social media. During the conversation with Matthew McConaughey, the Call Me by Your Name actor was discussing industry-wide fears that theatrical moviegoing is becoming more of a niche medium, comparable to theater, and pointed out that it takes more marketing effort to guarantee that audiences will show up.
"It does take you having to wave a flag of, 'Hey, this is a serious movie' or something. And some people want to be [entertained] quickly," Chalamet said. "I'm really right in the middle, Matthew, because I admire people — and I have done it myself — to go on a talk show about, 'Hey, we got to keep movie theaters alive. We got to keep this genre alive.'"
Timothée Chalamet and a ballerinaCredit: Karwai Tang/WireImage; Getty
He continued, "I don't want to be working in ballet or opera or things where it's like, 'Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore.'"
Chalamet — whose grandmother, mother, and sister are professional dancers who have performed with the New York City Ballet — then registered his words and added, "All respect to the ballet and opera people out there."
He then quipped, "I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason."
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The Oscar nominee has since been criticized, including a strong response from the ballet and opera communities. In addition to multiple performers speaking out, the Metropolitan Opera posted a video highlighting the craftsmanship of set decorators, musicians, costumers, and more theatrical technicians on Thursday with the caption, "This one's for you, @tchalamet."
London's Royal Ballet and Opera posted a similar video that began with an audio clip of Chalamet's controversial remark before cutting to roaring audiences alongside the text, "We care."
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