Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) has been hearing from online critics over the last week about her opening performance at the BAFTA ceremony. She even suspended her Twitter account over the reactions she was receiving.
During her first awards ceremony since the BAFTAs, DeBose decided to poke fun at the situation herself when she took the stage with Diego Luna (Andor) to present the award for Female Actor in a Drama Series.
“Diego, do the thing,” DeBose tells Luna, referring to some of the lyrics she sang during her BAFTA rap describing how nominee and Black Panther star Angela Bassett “did the thing.” The joke got plenty of laughter from the audience, including from Bassett who was watching from the audience and blew DeBose a kiss.
Earlier in their presentation, DeBose and Luna stepped onto the stage where they tried to quiet down the audience who were still chattering after the break. “Buenas noches, buenas noches,” Diego said. DeBose followed up with, “Hey, y’all. Go ahead, sit on down.”
Some viewers noticed that the closed captions identified Luna incorrectly as actor Matt Bomer (Doom Patrol).
Luna then continued, “Buenas noches a todas y a todos. Muchas gracias por sentarse.” He then turns to DeBose and asks, “¿Como se dice, si se puede sentar y callar en ingles?”
DeBose answered: “Shut the hell up.”
After DeBose teased herself about the BAFTAs, she gave a little smirk and struck a pose, seemingly putting this entire viral moment behind her.
Before the SAG Awards, DeBose addressed her BAFTA performance during an interview with the BBC and said she got a thumbs up from many people, including Elvis director Baz Luhrmann. She also mentioned that “gay Twitter seemed to like it, so that’s good. I’ll take it.”
Watch the 29th annual SAG Awards in its entirety below, with Ariana DeBose and Diego Luna coming in at the 1:24:17 mark.