Angela Bassett recited a piece of Ariana DeBose’s speech from the British Academy Awards during her sermon at the NAACP Image Awards. The actress ended up taking the “Entertainer Of The Year” home. Amid her acceptance speech, she jokingly said in a DeBose-fashion, “I guess Angela Bassett did the thing.”
Because of the ridicule DeBose received from her rap performance at the BAFTA, Bassett also gave her some encouraging words. The actress deleted her account after memes were made about the whole ordeal.
On the red carpet, Bassett revealed to Variety,
“I DM’d her last night. I did. It was beautiful. I just wanted to make sure she was OK because, you know, it’s a lot of attention. And she is A-OK.”
DeBose opened up about how she’s dealt with the feedback since her performance. She hopped on Zoe Ball‘s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show and said she just wanted to celebrate women.
“Honestly, it’s not like I’m like, ‘Hey, BAFTA, let me in!’ They actually called me, believe it or not,” DeBose said. “But that was the assignment. Like, ‘Come celebrate women,’ and I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ We did that and it was fun. Not going to lie. I had a blast. [It was] so awesome, and then I spent the rest of the night, you know, cutting a rug. Which, is that something you say here? Cutting a rug with Emma Thompson. It was fabulous. I had a great time.”
