“I wanted to make sure she was okay.” – IndieWire

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Angela Bassett already did the thing — which, of course, was Ariana DeBose following her viral, Oscar-winning rap performance at the BAFTA Film Awards last Sunday.

The musical number, which saw the Oscar winner win multiple BAFTA nominees, was mentioned by the likes of Lizzo and Adele at live performances this week and has been referenced on social media by the likes of Halle Berry. DeBose’s playful references to the actors in the room — “Anna, girl, you were great in Blonde” among others — seemed to please the subjects of her banter.

Talking to diverse On the NAACP Image Awards red carpet — where she won Outstanding Supporting Actress in “Wakanda Forever” and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “9-1-1” — Bassett revealed that she has absolutely no problem with whoops. In fact, she contacted DeBose afterward to express her support after it went viral.

“I DMed her last night. I did,” Bassett said. “I just wanted to make sure she was okay because, you know, he gets a lot of attention. And she’s fine. “

Bassett isn’t Debuss’s only rap fan. After the BAFTAs, show producer Nick Bullen praised the performance, citing it as an example of how award shows can evolve to become more modern.

“I absolutely loved it,” he said. “Everyone I spoke to who was in the room absolutely loved her. She’s a huge star, she was amazing. The songs she was singing are very familiar songs, the room was clapping, and people were kind of dancing to the music. The rap section in the middle, he mentioned the women in the room, It was because it was such an amazing year for women in film, and we wanted to celebrate that. And here’s a woman of color at the absolute top of her game. And she opened the BAFTAs with a song that said so much on so many levels. All of these cues, I felt, from the moment we were rehearsing to casting last night , I talked about what we wanted to do.”