Chappell Roan Had A Seriously Smart Tactic To Avoid Falling Victim To The Lip Readers Of TikTok At Last Night’s VMAs

“She saw those lipreading videos on TikTok and said: ‘I’m not the one, catch somebody else.’”

By
Stephanie Soteriou
by Stephanie Soteriou

BuzzFeed Staff

In recent years, celebrities have been given a new thing to fear when it comes to public events: the lip readers of TikTok.

Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift engage in an animated conversation at a formal event, joined by a third unidentified person
Christopher Polk / Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images

Just this year, Selena Gomez found herself at the center of a social media storm after it was widely claimed that she had gossiped about Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner with her best friend Taylor Swift at the Golden Globes.


In footage from the ceremony, Selena could be seen having a seriously animated conversation with Taylor at her table.


Undeniably, whatever was being shared was some seriously juicy gossip, and lip readers soon stepped in to try and work out what was being said.


Before long, they had theorized that Selena was telling Taylor that she had asked for a photo with Timothée, but his girlfriend, Kylie, stopped him from taking one with her.


And when this rumor hit the headlines, Selena was quick to try and set the record straight, commenting on an Instagram post: “Noooooo I told Taylor about two of my friends who hooked up. Not that that’s anyone business."


Incidentally, the two friends who hooked up are now widely thought to have been Selena’s Only Murders in the Building costars Martin Short and Meryl Streep.

After this mix-up, Selena appeared to poke fun at the lip-reading drama when she posed for a photo with Emily Blunt, who’d also fallen victim to the lip readers, with both women covering their mouths in the picture.

Emily Blunt and Selena Gomez cover their mouths with their hands at an event. Emily wears a structured white outfit, and Selena is in a striped dark suit
Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

For context, social media users had mistakenly said that Emily was discussing divorce with her husband, John Krasinski, on a red carpet. 

And Chappell Roan seemed to be prepared for the internet sleuths at Wednesday night’s MTV VMAs, with the star cleverly bringing a fan with her to the event, which she opened to speak behind whenever she wanted to chat during the ceremony.

Chappell Roan in a medieval-inspired outfit poses on the red carpet
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

In one viral clip, Chappell can be seen dancing with her fan closed before quickly whipping it up to her mouth, opening it, and saying something to her creative director and friend Ramisha Sattar, who sat beside her.

Ramisha and Chappell Roan in stylish outfits at a seated event, Chappell is obscuring their face with a fan. People are sitting or standing in the background
MTV / Via x.com

Once she had finished speaking, Chappell promptly closed her fan again, with a proud smile on her face.

Ramisha and Chappell Roan in stylish outfits at the VMAs
MTV / Via x.com

Reacting to the clip on X, one person joked: “She saw those lipreading videos on tiktok and said I'm not the one catch somebody else lmao love her.”


“she will not let those lip readers on tiktok get her at all,” another wrote. 


“Ooh she’s so smart for this,” one more tweeted. Somebody else added: “chappell having a fan to talk behind so the tiktokers couldn’t lip read, shes that bitch.”


Of course, Chappell isn't the first celeb to use this method to avoid conversations being exposed, with Taylor Swift taking a fan to this year's Grammys for the same reason.

And the fan wasn’t Chappell’s only viral moment of the night, with the singer also being widely praised for her show-stopping performance during the ceremony — which came after she’d had a tense moment on the red carpet.

Chappell Roan gestures while speaking
Noam Galai / Getty Images for MTV

In footage that emerged online before the official ceremony had even begun, Chappell can be seen hitting out at a photographer who had shouted: “Shut the fuck up.”


It is unclear whether he was shouting at her or somebody else in the press area. Chappell did not appear to be speaking when he yelled out, and had actually turned away from the cameras to fix her outfit.


Still, Chappell yelled back: "You shut the fuck up!" before sternly adding: “No. Not me bitch.”


Chappell later discussed the moment with Entertainment Tonight, where she explained: “[Red carpets are] quite overwhelming and quite scary. I think for someone who gets a lot of anxiety around people yelling at you, the carpet is horrifying. I yelled back. You don't yell at me."

Topics in this article

Comments
Skip to footer