Why Doja Cat is backtracking on her criticism of Timothée Chalamet's controversial ballet and ope...

&34;The truth is, I don't know anything about opera,&34; the Grammy winner admitted. &34;I don't know anything about ballet.&34; Why Doja Cat is backtracking on her criticism of Timothée Chalamet's controversial ballet and opera comments &34;The truth is, I don't know anything about opera,&34; the Grammy winner admitted. &34;I don't know anything about ballet.&34; By Shania Russell :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/ShaniaRussellauthorphoto5934b684845d480caa4485648c39ef2b.jpg) Shania Russell Shania Russell is a news writer at , with five years of experience.

"The truth is, I don't know anything about opera," the Grammy winner admitted. "I don't know anything about ballet."

Why Doja Cat is backtracking on her criticism of Timothée Chalamet's controversial ballet and opera comments

"The truth is, I don't know anything about opera," the Grammy winner admitted. "I don't know anything about ballet."

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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March 11, 2026 2:18 p.m. ET

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Doja Cat; Timothée Chalamet at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards in Los Angeles on March 1, 2026. Credit:

- Doja Cat recently joined the chorus of stars criticizing Timothée Chalamet for his controversial remarks about opera and ballet.

- Now the Grammy-winning artist regrets sharing her thoughts "in the heat of the moment."

- "The truth is, I don't know anything about opera," Doja Cat admitted. "I don't know anything about ballet."

Doja Cat has some regrets about weighing in on the Timothée Chalamet discourse.

The uproar is still going strong, nearly a week after the *Marty Supreme* actor went viral for saying that "no one cares" about opera and ballet anymore. The remarks inspired a wave of backlash from creatives in the field, musicians, and fellow Hollywood stars, who have not minced words while criticizing Chalamet's comments — and initially, Doja was happy to jump on the bandwagon.

In a since-deleted Instagram video, the Grammy-winning artist called Chalamet out by name, stating, "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."

But in a new video shared Tuesday, Doja backtracked on her comments, explaining that she recorded the previous video "in the heat of the moment."

Frazer Harrison/Getty

Speaking candidly to her audience, the singer said, "I am going to come out and say that I know nothing about opera. I know nothing about ballet." While she did spend several years in ballet as a child, she added, "in no way, shape, or form am I a real professional dancer."

Doja, whose full name is s Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, explained that she doesn't feel that she's the most qualified person to unpack Chalamet's controversial remarks.

"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," she said. "What I was doing yesterday was virtue signaling 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 continued: "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… 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. And I wanted to look like a hero, and that's what happened."

The "Paint the Town Red" singer went on to say that she isn't proud of jumping into the conversation the way she did, and after "educating" herself on the subject, decided she ought to address it.

"It just kind of furthers the fact that sometimes I think s‑‑‑ and then I'm like, 'Never mind,'" she concluded. "So never mind."

In her original video, Doja chided Chalamet for disrespecting the work that goes into opera and ballet, arguing that the artists 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."

Timothée Chalamet.

Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic

While Doja is bowing out of the firestorm, the heat on Chalamet has only intensified throughout the week. *The View*, *Jeopardy*, Bradley Whitford, acclaimed ballet dancer Misty Copeland, the London Ballet, and the Metropolitan Opera are among those to have called out the actor over his dig.

The outrage began after Chalamet commented on opera and ballet during a February CNN/*Variety* town hall interview with Matthew McConaughey. The *Dune* star was discussing industrywide fears that theatrical moviegoing is becoming more of a niche medium and said, "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.'"

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Chalamet, whose grandmother and mother are professional dancers who have performed with the New York City Ballet, then backtracked, adding, "All respect to the ballet and opera people out there."

He also quipped, "I just lost 14 cents in viewership. I just took shots for no reason."

In the meantime, Chalamet is days away from walking the red carpet at the 98th annual Academy Awards, where he's hoping to take home his first Best Actor trophy.

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Published: March 12, 2026 at 08:01AM on Source: MANUEL MAG

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