Stop What You're Doing And Learn Some Facts About Ariana DeBose Because She Is The Moment And Deserves Your Attention

When she sat down for an interview with Harper's Bazaar UK in February 2022, Ariana said that, if she wasn't an actor, she'd likely be a lawyer. This led to her revealing another career path she once had in mind.

"I actually thought I was going to be a politician," Ariana said. "I like people and I like to argue, and I like to help others, which, to me, sounds like a politician, but only if you're doing it for the right reasons."

Ariana's dance skills have been apparent since she was a kid. Back in 2006, Cold Stone Creamery held a dance contest through YouTube, and the finalists competed in New York to see who could come up with the best dance moves to Fergie's song, "London Bridge," as the Franchise Times reported. A 15-year-old Ariana won the dance off, met Fergie, who was a contest judge, and received $15,000 and free Cold Stone shakes and smoothies for life. The lattermost prize later helped her when she was starting out in her career.

"When I first moved to New York, you know, I was a starving artist ... so when I would run out of peanut butter and jelly, or ... couldn't afford coffee, I would just stroll down to 42nd Street, Times Square, walk into Cold Stone and get some ice cream for breakfast," she said on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2021.

When she visited Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2021, Ariana said that she was among the first round of contestants who was sent home when she appeared on the reality dance competition show at age 18. This outcome turned out to be to her advantage, however, since it gave Ariana an even stronger desire to work hard and succeed.

"Had that not happened, I don't think I would have ended up where I am, so everything does happen for a reason," she said.

The Bullet was the role that Ariana played in Hamilton as an ensemble member, who symbolized the bullet that would ultimately strike and kill Alexander Hamilton during his duel with Aaron Burr. Ariana later explained how she used the character's representation of death for inspiration.

"As an actor, I was like, how do I make this work for myself, you know?" she said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2022. "So I just started filling in the blanks, and I said, 'What about an omen of death? Maybe she's ... death itself.'"

In 2020, Ariana starred as Alyssa in The Prom, a film adaptation directed by Ryan Murphy. The character was a teenager who is in the closet at the start of the movie but, by the end of the story, was able to go to her high school prom with her girlfriend, Emma, by her side. Ariana identifies as queer and was vocal about the importance of the movie's depiction of queer girls of color.

“I love that this film is coming out right now because not only is it a celebration of queer love and queer joy, but it’s also a step in the right direction, in my opinion, of normalizing seeing young queer girls of color in coming-of-age stories,” Ariana told HuffPost in 2020.

When she chatted with Backstage in November 2021, Ariana addressed what her contributions to West Side Story mean for wide-ranging representation on screen. 

“I’m queer, I’m Afro-Lat, I’m biracial. I have so many different labels. I’m like, Good Lord — I am America,” she said. “I belong to damn near every single marginalized community in one way or another ... if nothing else, if my image is the embodiment of some of that conversation, then it’s worth it. And I’m fucking proud of that.” 

When Ariana was asked to audition for West Side Story, she was still starring in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. The casting director of the film called her at 11:30 p.m. one night and asked her to come in for the audition the next morning. Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner loved Ariana's singing and dancing, but when they asked her to read some sides, Ariana declined, since she hadn't had enough time to properly prepare for this part of the audition.

"[Steven] said, 'Will you read?' and I said no," Ariana told Jimmy Fallon. "I had said the night before, look ... these are Tony Kushner expanded scenes, they can be wordy and they're important. You gotta nail it ... He said, 'Will you come back?' and I said, 'I'd be honored.'"

A couple weeks after completing her audition, Steven called Ariana while she was at the nail salon with foils on her fingers and told her the part of Anita was hers.

"I fell in love with the film when I was 7 or 8," Ariana told NPR in December 2021 about the first time she saw West Side Story. 

She then added about Rita Moreno's portrayal of Anita, "And I loved the woman in the purple dress just dancing with furious abandon and great passion. And I wanted to be just like her."

When she did a SiriusXM interview with the West Side Story Cast in 2021, Ariana explained how her Afro-Latina identity informed her performance as Anita in the film. 

"I do play [Anita] as unapologetically Black ... I just think it gives it some depth that, perhaps, you know, has never been allowed to be explored because you don't see Afro-Latinas really in lead characters in this way often," Ariana said. "So that was very exciting for me."

Steven told The Hollywood Reporter in January 2022 about the importance of how Ariana brought her unique perspective to the role.

“Ariana needed to bring her entire existence into this character," he said before adding, "I’m not sure anyone can watch Ariana’s performance and not feel how tightly she had her arms around her own Anita and created her own special light.”

Ariana was presented with a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role for West Side Story on February 27. This makes her the first Latina actor and first openly queer woman to score an individual SAG Award, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Variety wrote that, at the SAG Awards media room, Ariana commented on her optimism for the future after the historic victory.

“It’s indicative that doors are opening,” Ariana said. “It’s an honor to an Afro-Latina queer women of color and a dancer and a singer and an actor.”

In addition, her recent nomination for an Oscar in the best supporting actress category made Ariana the first openly queer woman of color to receive an Academy Award nomination for an acting performance. She is also the first Afro-Latina to earn a nomination.

"It's really special," she said about her Oscar nomination on The View in February 2022. "I think, when you use ...  the word 'first,' it's monumental. It's not just a huge moment for me, it's a huge moment for all the communities I represent and that I belong to."

Deadline reported that Ariana is rumored to be playing Calypso, "a voodoo priestess who utilizes magic potions," in Kraven the Hunter, a Sony Pictures’ Marvel film. Other cast members said to be involved in the project so far include Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe.

She also has two upcoming movies listed on her IMDB page: spy thriller Argylle and sci-fi film I.S.S.

When she was recently asked where she wants to be in five years, Ariana's response was geared toward career accomplishments with the central focus of utilizing her talents to give back.

"In five year's time, I hope that [I'm] making more movies and going back to the theater," Ariana told Harper's Bazaar UK. "Ultimately, ... I want to have hopefully made an even bigger difference in other people's lives. I like to help people, and I choose to do that through art. And so, I hope to have found bigger and better avenues to try and do that in five years, with, like, a side order of maybe doing a play on the West End. That would be fun."