Queer NC Native & Oscar winner Ariana DeBose gets slammed for performance at BAFTAs

by David Aaron Moore Qnotes Staff Writer

If you don’t know who Ariana Debose is by now, chances are you’ve been sleeping for the past few years.

The North Carolina native who was born in Wilmington, studied dance in Raleigh and self-identifies as Queer, experienced a break-through year in 2022. As previously reported in QNotes, she won both the Academy Award, a Golden Globe and the British BAFTA for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic film “West Side Story.”

That same year she was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine. As if all that wasn’t enough, she was also invited to host the 75th annual Tony Awards for 2022.

There’s no questioning DeBose’s talent. She’s a triple threat: dancer, singer and actor. None of that has changed, but a freestyle rap and dance presentation at the 2023 BAFTAs (an acronym for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which hosts the annual British Academy Film Awards) Feb. 19, stirred up enough negative comments on Twitter that DeBose decided to deactivate her account.

Following her performance at the 76th annual event in London where she celebrated the female nominees by name in a combination of dance, song and rap, and Adam eventually reaches its peak, and they end up having sex in the station wagon. It’s a beautiful and erotic depiction of the first time someone has sex. How challenging is it to write a scene such as that, and not have it come off as cheesy or manipulative?

GS: It’s not something I was too worried about. Matthew Chuang is my cinematographer, and my straight husband, and I feel very safe in his hands. He tends to rely on natural lighting, and then when that’s not available, he mimics it so closely that you don’t realize it’s not natural. Natural lighting never leads to tawdriness. It helps the film feel tactile without it being tasteless or artificial. Because all of our work is shot according to those principles, I don’t think we approach the sex scene in a different way. With the sex scene, it was all about the actors’ comfort, and also trying to convey that feeling of sex for the first time as primally as we possibly can, while everyone’s being treated respectfully. You don’t have to rely on explicitness or shock tactics.

GS: The second section, which takes place 11 years later in 2010, begins during the “Icelandic volcano apoca- the criticism kicked in from Variety who described her performance as “a little out of breath at some points” with lyrics that “felt clumsy.”

The show’s producer Nick Bullen quickly came to her defense in the same publication.

“I think it’s incredibly unfair, to be frank. I absolutely loved it. Everybody I’ve spoken to who was in the room absolutely loved it. She’s a huge star, she was amazing. The songs she was singing are very familiar songs, the room was clapping and lypse” (of Eyjafjallajökull), which you mentioned. Kol and Adam bump into each other in the airport, both back in Australia for Ebony’s wedding. A comment is made about how Kol’s personality hasn’t changed much, but a physical transformation has occurred – Kol is now a hot man and carries himself differently. people were sort of dancing to the music. That rap section in the middle mentioning the women in the room, was because it’s been a great year for women in film, and we wanted to celebrate that. And here is a woman of color who is at the absolute top of her game. And she’s opening the BAFTAs with a song that said so much on so many levels. All those mentions, I felt, from the moment we were rehearsing it right through the transmission last night, spoke to what we wanted to do.”

GS: We were all keenly aware on-set of that happening in front of our eyes. In the script, the difference in Kol was mainly about demeanor and personality. I felt like he was more similar to how Adam was when Kol first met him.

GS: He exuded a newfound confidence that Adam had.

GS: Yes! To me, that also shows the impact Adam had on him. It’s what life makes of you. You have to build a certain kind of resilience if you’re a gay kid from that kind of background, socioeconomically, culturally and so forth. There was a lot of conversation with Elias, the actor, because he was 23 or 24 at the time we were shooting. It’s easy to play someone younger than you, but it’s really hard to convey life experience beyond your own actual years.

So what exactly did DeBose do to

GS: He succeeds.

GS: Thank you! There was a lot of conversation. But, to be honest, it was also kind of uncanny. I remember tearing up at the most casual dialogue, when they’re talking on that bus. I was like, “Oh, my God, it’s my boy growing up.” There was a parental dynamic with all three of them. Especially with Elias and Hattie, who were younger. You just watch them grow, as well, offscreen. I feel very lucky to have been able to benefit from that. It felt like capturing lightning in a bottle. There was a lot of talk, before we even started shooting anything, about the difference between your mindset and your inner life when you’re older, like 28, compared to 17, and so on and so forth. Once we started shooting, I didn’t want to talk about things in the abstract. I feel like it’s something you have to absorb unconsciously, and then you’re acting from an organic place.

GS: Without giving too much away, the finale falls into the tearjerker category, and yet, it’s not a tragedy. Is this how you always envisioned the story ending?

GS: Yes. I think there’s a parallel merit a full force attack that went viral on Twitter?

In essence, she had one of those perfect storm moments. Not unlike the cringe-worthy “Howard Dean Scream” in the 2004 Democratic primary. Perhaps it was the combination of her body movements and vocal pronunciations –comically twisting her hips and flipping her hands in time to the music while uttering the vague phrase, “Angela Basset did the thing,” which seemed to many, somewhat dismissive for an accomplished actress like Bassett. Whatever the case, it produced something just quirky enough that social media mavens glommed onto it and sent it viral.

If the latest in 21st century technology didn’t exist and viewers hadn’t caught on quick enough to snag the clip and turn it into a meme or a gif and Twitter users hadn’t been quite so overboard, calling out DeBose on her own Twitter account, then she probably wouldn’t have shut it down.

Fast forward 24 hours and the North Carolina Queer girl who made it big is now chuckling at herself, once again taking to social media on Instagram and enjoying the attention she’s getting for her goofy words and movements on a page full of Ariana memes and gifs. “I’m loving every minute of this,” she posted.

And why shouldn’t she? DeBose has a slew of upcoming projects lined up to keep her busy, rake in some big bucks and keep making her home state proud. :: between how the 1999 and 2010 sections end. It’s been interesting because people have slightly different interpretations about the ending. For me, emotionally, the whole premise of the film is, “Were these feelings worth it?” I don’t think it’s a standard happy or sad ending.

GS: Have you started working on or thinking about your next film project?

GS: I just finished editing my third picture. We’re in sound mix at the moment. That should be finished in the next couple of months, hopefully. After that, I’m a free agent, so I don’t know what happens with my life [laughs]. I was in a very strange position; before I finished my first feature, the next two were already financed. I’ve been shooting them back to back to back. I finish one on Wednesday and start casting the next one on Thursday. It’s been a frantic and emotionally rewarding couple of years. I’m very lucky to have had three extremely beautiful experiences with each of these films. Films that I love. I’m looking for that again. I don’t really want to make something that doesn’t make me feel this way. I don’t know what it’s going to take for the fourth one. ::