Ariana DeBose is speaking out about her BAFTAs opening number — the one in which she did her thing.
While chatting with Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, the Oscar winner, 32, gave her first comments since viral pushback surfaced after her performance at the British awards last Sunday.
"You know what, you might be one of the few," DeBose said when Ball revealed she enjoyed the performance in a clip of the interview shared on TikTok Saturday. "I'll take it, because you're my people."
Ball also called the performance a "woman singing and dancing, being magnificent celebrating women," and, as DeBose revealed, that's exactly what she "wanted to do."
@bbc “A woman celebrating women” 🧡 👏 Ariana DeBose talks for the first time about that iconic BAFTAs performance! #BBCRadio2 #BBCSounds #iPlayer ♬ original sound - BBC
"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 gonna 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," she continued, referring to dancing with the actress. "It was fabulous. I had a great time."
After the host and the actress agreed that Thompson "had the moves" as a dancer herself, DeBose shared that others in attendance were also fans of her performance, including Baz Luhrmann.
"He was like, 'No, I think you're great, that was fun. I had fun.' And I was like, 'work,' " she said. "That's a win, you guys. And apparently, gay Twitter seemed to like it? So that's good, I'll take it. I told you, my people."
On Saturday, DeBose also reposted a video on Instagram of Lizzo emulating her performance at her concert in Amsterdam earlier in the week. In the clip, the Grammy winner, 34, told the crowd she'd "shake it off," before breaking out into DeBose's now-viral line, "Angela Bassett did the thing," which she repeated to cheers and laughs from the crowd.
"The internet is wild y'all," DeBose wrote with a head-explosion emoji in her caption. "Appreciate all the love."
During DeBose's number, which came after host Richard E. Grant's opening monologue, a group of dancers performed alongside the West Side Story actress as she sang "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves" and "We Are Family," as well as rapped about the night's female nominees.
The actress rapped in part, "Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my 'Woman King,' Blanchett Cate you're a genius, Jamie Lee you are all of us," as the camera panned to members of the crowd showing an array of different expressions.
While DeBose's Twitter account is still deactivated, she previously shared a series of snapshots from the ceremony in London to her Instagram feed on Tuesday, showing her posing on the red carpet, performing her viral opening number and more.
Several images also featured DeBose smiling alongside several nominees, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh and Eddie Redmayne.
"@bafta 💛 Some moments I loved with ppl I love," the actress captioned her post.
"You are amazing ❤️❤️❤️," Melanie Lynskey wrote in the comments, while Gabrielle Union left several red heart emojis.
