Timothée Chalamet's casual dismissal of opera and ballet as irrelevant art forms has sparked a fiery response from Doja Cat, who delivered a passionate defense of centuries-old traditions in a viral TikTok that's since been deleted but not forgotten.
In a Sunday video, Doja didn't hold back, calling out Chalamet by name and emphasizing the enduring legacy of these arts. "Opera is 400 years old. Ballet is 500 years old," she stated, challenging his claim that "no one cares" about them. "I'm sure you can walk into an opera theater right now, seats will be filled, and nobody's saying a word because everybody has that much respect for it."
The Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, highlighted the dedication behind the scenes. "There is an etiquette around opera. There is etiquette around ballet. It's amazing. It's f---ing beautiful," she said, pointing to the grueling daily routines of dancers who "show up at 8am, 6am. They break and they bleed, every single day, just because they have respect for it."
Doja Cat. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty
Doja argued that the passion of performers and audiences transcends industry struggles. "They love what they do. It doesn't matter if the industry is having a tough time," she noted, drawing parallels to other fields. "Your industry has a tough time. My industry has a tough time. Doesn't mean people don't care about it. People care."
She wrapped up with a blunt lesson in decorum: "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."
Chalamet's original comments, made in a broader discussion about promoting serious films, included him saying, "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.'" Despite his family's deep ties to dance—his grandmother, mother, and sister have performed with the New York City Ballet—he later added, "All respect to the ballet and opera people out there," joking, "I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason."
Timothée Chalamet and a ballerina. Karwai Tang/WireImage; Getty
Representatives for Chalamet have not yet responded to requests for comment, but Doja's fiery rebuttal has already ignited conversations online about the value of traditional arts in modern culture.
