Angela Bassett emailed Ariana DeBose with her famous 2023 BAFTA Award opening number, which caught many viewers by surprise. DeBose gave lyrical praise to her talented colleagues, including Bassett.
Bassett introduced Variety's senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson to the 2023 NAACP Awards on Saturday (Feb. 25).
"I did," says the participant. "I just wanted to make sure she was okay because it's a lot of attention, and she's A-OK."
DeBose talked about how she handled the criticism and her concerns during an interview on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
"It's not like he'll say, 'Hey BAFTA, let me in," she said. "But that was the assignment." We decided, "Come celebrate women," and I was like, 'Absolutely!'
"And apparently gay Twitter seemed to like it, so that's good."
Following DeBose's deactivation of her Twitter account, BAFTA producer Nick Bullen said his opinion that the commentary "is extremely unfair."
“We wanted to start the program with some energy and some fun, and we wanted to emphasize right away that this was likely going to be a different night, but with a familiarity, and what Ariana did was exactly that.”
