Ariana DeBose was hurt by the reaction (Picture: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
Ariana DeBose has reflected on that infamous viral moment at the Baftas and admitted it didn’t match up with her original plan.
In case you were living under a rock back in February, the 32-year-old Oscar winner caused quite the stir and sparked some criticism on social media for rap which commented on each of the female nominees up for gongs at the event.
Now, the West Side Story actress has gone into some detail on that night, admitting that she initially wanted to perform something inspired by Madonna hit Vogue.
‘What I initially started out with was much simpler. It was just a list of names, to be honest,’ she told Marie Claire, with producers wanting to go for ‘something showier’.
‘We came up with something that was as far as I was willing to go, and that also met their needs,’ she explained, although she has refused to reveal what her conversations were like with producers after the award show.
‘Lessons were learned,’ she said, later adding: ‘Every time you step out on a stage, there’s a chance it’s not going to go well for either you or for the audience for whatever reason. And it seems that that was one of those performances. You win some, you lose some.’
The response was split (Picture: Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
She doesn’t want to shy away from the ‘hurtful’ way people spoke about her (Picture: Kate Green/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
Ariana previously admitted she ‘had a blast’ on the night, but now she’s revealed how ‘hurtful’ the online backlash to her performance was.
‘I have found that trying to act as if I don’t feel something is not helpful. Pretending it’s not happening, not helpful,’ she said.
She was upset her grandmother had to see the abuse (Picture: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
‘Yes, I performed at the BAFTAs. Yes, the Internet had a moment about it. Yes, some things were said that I didn’t appreciate and that I found very hurtful.
‘And yes, eventually the tide turned on the Internet and people found what I saw in it: the fun, the joy. But that doesn’t mean that along that little journey, I didn’t feel my feelings about having the Internet make fun of me for being me and doing what I love to do.’
While she did deactivate her Twitter account at the time, Ariana has revealed how she cried ‘once’ over the whole situation, which came from the harmful abuse being sent her way online.
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She explained: ‘I did cry once, but it was because I felt so bad that my grandmother was seeing the really horrible things that were being said that had actually nothing to do with the performance, that were just ripping me apart.
‘That’s when I cried, because my grandmother loves me, and she doesn’t want to read that.
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She was rocked by the backlash.