Curtain Call

It’s safe to say that Ariana DeBose is becoming a household name. That is, if she isn’t already.

Her performance as Anita in director Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story guaranteed her a slew of honors during the 2022 awards season. By its end, she had received the Screen Actors Guild Award® for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role as well as the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Not only that, she made history as the first openly queer Afro-Latin actor to do so.
“It was one of the first times I had stepped out as an actor [and] really owned that [identity],” says DeBose, when asked about receiving The Actor®. 

“Finding myself and my first major studio film being recognized by this massive delegation of people was really special. It’s wild, even to be nominated; I was like, ‘Wow!’”

The buzz that’s followed DeBose since then has only grown. She has hosted gigs for the 2022 Tony Awards and Saturday Night Live, and with more on the way, it’s only expected to get louder. If there’s ever been a perfect time to get to know Ariana DeBose as a performer, as a rising star and as a passionate human being, this is it.

The best way to start is from the beginning. Born and raised in North Carolina, DeBose recalls knowing that she wanted to be a performer at a very young age. At the same time she was reenacting soap opera scenes on the staircase of her grandmother’s apartment complex, she was developing a love for dancing and taking classes. As she got older, that love expanded into singing and acting, but essentially, she credits her mother for pushing her to explore theater.

“She was constantly challenging me to do things I wasn’t good at instead of staying where I was comfortable, and that’s when I got into theater; because I wasn’t good at it and it made me work harder,” DeBose tells SAG-AFTRA. “Ultimately, what I’ve learned is that I was good at stepping into someone else’s shoes and having empathy and compassion for them ... and as an adult, that’s [become] my superpower.”

DeBose’s talent and powers have certainly brought her a long way. After an abrupt end to her time as a top 20 finalist on season six of the dance competition show So You Think You Can Dance, she ultimately found a new stage on which to perform: Broadway. While Hamilton fans know her as the original Bullet (2015-2016), her other credits include Bring It On: The Musical (2011), Motown: The Musical (2013), Pippin (2014) and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (2018), which earned her a Tony nomination.

Along the way, she lit up the screen with Netflix's The Prom (2020) and Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon! (2021–present). She’s currently appearing in season four of HBO’s Westworld, and, of course, West Side Story.
With so many notable stage and screen credits, did DeBose ever imagine working on Broadway, television and the big screen when starting out? Did she ever feel as though she had to choose one or the other to be successful?

Her answer is a resounding no: “I said yes to the work that I was being offered, and for about 10 years, it was onstage work. But when I had sustained injuries from Hamilton that required me to give my body a break, the logical next [step] was trying to book on-camera work. I went back to acting classes and ... my acting teacher forced me to humble myself [and] it was the best thing anybody’s done for me. Nobody cared that I was in Hamilton. It was, ‘Can you talk, can you act, do you know what you’re doing?’”

It’s become clear that DeBose knows what she’s doing — although she isn’t simply letting her accolades be definitive proof. In January, she joins Marvel Comics lore as a co-star of Kraven the Hunter, part of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

She’s as committed to challenging herself as she’s ever been, and at a moment when she has her choice of roles, that has meant taking on characters whose experiences are different than her own.

Which brings us to West Side Story’s Anita. In interviews, DeBose has often vocalized how playing Anita gave her an opportunity to explore her own Afro-Latin identity authentically, or in her own words, the “fullness of herself.”“From the moment I [started] auditioning, I was very honest with them about still learning and engrossing myself in that part of my identity. Part of my authenticity was saying, ‘I need my people around me; I need to see people who look like me,’ and it was also knowing that I [wasn’t] always going to get everything right, but it didn’t make me any less of what or who I am. West Side Story was an opportunity for me to embrace all of that and be proud of it.”

Her Kraven character, reportedly the Voodoo priestess Calypso, has not only presented a different set of challenges and opportunities, but also offers a way for DeBose to continue making her characters as real to audiences as they are to her.

"I believe it is our job as actors to care for our characters and advocate for them in a way that champions the experiences of real-life individuals," she said. "As an actor, [I] want to be as respectful as possible and find compassion and empathy. That comes with the caveat of understanding ... the fullness of the character, their story and also their truth, however nuanced that is."

Authenticity has also played a major role in DeBose’s off-screen life. As a longtime member of both SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association, she appreciates the role unions have played in her career, and she champions unionism for her fellow performers.

“I believe unions are a source of protection, both in the physical and the business [sense],” says DeBose. “No matter what union you’re a part of, it’s still show business, and my unions have been there to protect me. “Having colleagues who are very much still doing dance-based work, we have conversations frequently about how we can show up in a stronger way or how we can ask better questions — and also help provide solutions. It’s one thing to identify problems; it’s another thing to show up and be part of the conversation. When you feel the most comfortable and supported, you [can be] an advocate from a space that is brighter and lighter and more active.”

Additionally, since the now-historic overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, DeBose has been among many public figures to vocalize a need for systemic change, and she has put her feelings toward action. She is active on the board of directors for nonprofits Covenant House and A is For, which focuses on reproductive rights, and she partners with the Human Rights Campaign, Point Foundation and The Trevor Project. 
But not all of her activism is in the public eye. She tries to help others in her private life, and encourages others to put their passions toward change.

“Judith Light said to me early on in my career, ‘What’s the point of having a platform if you’re not going to do something with it?’ and I took that very literally. It could be as simple as helping your elderly neighbor with their groceries sometimes, or taking you and a friend to go check your voter registration or ride-sharing to go vote on Election Day. It’s not about the big shows of involvement in my opinion; sometimes it’s just your day to day.

“But use your Googletron,” DeBose says, playfully referring to the Google search engine, “and whether it’s reproductive rights, homeless youth, helping LGBTQ+ people, or whether it’s just human rights in general, you can get involved on a local level.”

Whether it’s as an actor, singer, dancer or as an activist and unionist, it’s clear that the name “Ariana DeBose” will be here for quite a while. Which brings the interview to its final question: What does she want the rest of her career to look like?

“I want the rest of my career to be versatile and expansive, and of service. Not everything I do is going to be about changing the world. Sometimes it will just be a project I take on that will be about challenging myself and proving to myself that I still have the chops and ... I am indeed an artist. And sometimes [I’m] going to want to do something that is purely about advocacy.

“So, while it’s about, yes, having a beautiful, bold, expansive career, it’s also about just having a life well lived.”

This item originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA magazine summer 2022 issue.