The “Angela Bassett Did The Thing” meme has officially come full circle.
The Hollywood actor referenced Ariana DeBose’s viral song from last week’s Baftas as she made an acceptance speech at the NAACP Image Awards in the US on Saturday.
Ariana became an internet sensation when she sang about a number of women’s achievements in the film industry during a performance opening last Sunday’s Baftas ceremony in London, with the lyrics “Angela Bassett did the thing. Viola Davis, my Woman King” sparking many memes on social media.
As Angela made one of her speeches at the NAACP Image Awards – where she was awarded the coveted Entertainer of the Year prize, as well as Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for 9-1-1 and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – she couldn’t help but make a joke about how she had “done the thing”.
“I guess Angela Bassett did the thing!” she said, quoting Ariana and mimicking her shimmy, to cheers and laughs from the audience.
Prior to the awards, Angela told Variety she had spoken to Ariana after she deactivated her Twitter account following her performance at the Baftas.
“I DM’d her last night. I did. It was beautiful,” Angela told a reporter on the NAACP red carpet.
“I just wanted to make sure she was okay because, you know, it’s a lot of attention. And she is A-Okay.”
Ariana has also had her say on her viral moment, in a pre-recorded interview with Radio 2 Breakfast Show host Zoe Ball, which is set to air on Monday.
Per the Daily Mail, Zoe told her guest: “Can I just say, our listeners, we all loved your performance. And that whole… I don’t know what happened there?”
“You know what? You might be one of the few,” Ariana joked. “But I’ll take it… you’re my people!”
She continued: “It’s not like I was like ‘‘Hey Bafta… let me in!’. They actually called me – believe it or not.
“But that was the assignment, like come celebrate women, and I was like ‘absolutely!’. And we did that and it was fun, not going to lie, I had a blast. So awesome.”
Ariana concluded: “Apparently gay Twitter seemed to like it. So that’s good… I’ll take it!”
Ariana’s performance was previously defended by Baftas producer Nick Bullen, who said he found the reaction “incredibly unfair, to be frank”.
“I absolutely loved it,” he insisted. “Everybody I’ve spoken to who was in the room absolutely loved it.”