Ariana DeBose responds to viral memes about her BAFTA perfomance
Ariana DeBose low-key responded to the internet's obsession with her BAFTAs performance, which went viral in part due to her uttering the instantly iconic line, "Angela Bassett did the thing."
Sorry, full quote: “Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my 'Woman King,' Blanchett Cate you’re a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us."
Sisters are doing it for themselves! The incredible @ArianaDeBose opens the 2023 #EEBAFTAs with an iconic performance! ✨ pic.twitter.com/G9YgKN2e1t
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 19, 2023
Anyway, the reaction was obviously swift:
Unironically, “Angela Bassett did the thing” is probably the best distillation of her awards narrative that exists. She did the thing in WF, and has been doing the thing for decades without proper recognition. So thank you Ariana DeBose. pic.twitter.com/J69j4aNb5p
— Brandon Lewis (@blewis1103) February 21, 2023
When Angela Bassett wins the oscar she must start het speech by saying “and in the words of ariana debose, i did the thing”
— Murtada Elfadl (@ME_Says) February 20, 2023
if ariana debose dropped merch that said “angela bassett did the thing” i would buy a sweatshirt
— Jake Farrington (@jakefarrington) February 21, 2023
Help. I have said “angela bassett did the thing” 400 times and its not even noon!
— sam greisman (@SAMGREIS) February 20, 2023
It’s very possible that “ANGELA BASSETT did the thing” 🎵 is going to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life
pic.twitter.com/ipTtkWDmWe— Jane Blatz (@Jane_Blatz) February 21, 2023
How I sleep knowing Angela Bassett did the thing
pic.twitter.com/fdZkHcUhKF— Jose (@Psy_ch3) February 21, 2023
And initially, it seemed like Ariana was upset due to the fact that she deactivated her Twitter. Plus, BAFTAs producer Nick Bullen released a lengthy statement to Variety saying the internet's reaction was “incredibly unfair, to be frank.” He also made these v fair points:
"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 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 colour 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 of those mentions, I felt, from the moment we were rehearsing it right through to the transmission last night, spoke to what we wanted to do."
However, it looks like Ariana is enjoying the memes because she hopped into the comments of Evan Ross Katz's Insta post above and wrote, "Honestly I love this."
Kay, that's all, back to saying "Angela Bassett did the thing" at every available opportunity.
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