Ariana DeBose always carries herself with the utmost grace — but the ups and downs of her past have allowed her to become the best version of herself for the future.
“I have had quite the journey with criticism over the last few years,” DeBose, 33, exclusively shared with Us Weekly while promoting her new film, Kraven the Hunter. “Or at least for me, it was my own personal journey. And I think you have to get really good at taking things with a grain of salt. And when I’ve had those moments where I have felt heavily criticized or critiqued, I do take a minute and consider the source or sources. And I have decided for myself, and it has helped me create a healthier way of being.”
Following her hosting gig during the 2023 BAFTAs, DeBose faced backlash from social media trolls after she opened the awards show with a musical number that praised the women nominees like Angela Bassett and Jamie Lee Curtis for doing “the thing,” leading to her deactivating her X account. The year prior, she addressed haters who critiqued her Saturday Night Live hosting gig after she accidentally cited the wrong year during her monologue.
Looking back on those experiences, DeBose has learned to ignore anyone who can’t relate to her experience — one that includes an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two Emmy nominations. The multi-hyphenate is now also back on X — making her page private, because, boundaries — and has figured out how to protect her peace.
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“There’s a great quote that’s like, ‘Don’t take advice from people who are not in the arena, do not listen to criticism from people who are not in the arena,’” DeBose told Us. “That has been very helpful to me. I don’t necessarily think that all criticism is bad criticism, but I think the society we’re living in today, the first thing we do is criticize. It’s as if we have lost the ability to see the light in something or the intention behind something.”
“The first thing we do is find fault or why it’s less than. And that is so wholly uninteresting to me,” she continued. “I just don’t take advice or listen to criticism from people who are not in the arena anymore.”
Still, if DeBose were able to channel any magical power — like her “slippery” voodoo priestess character, Calypso, in Kraven the Hunter — she would upgrade her natural “white witch” abilities to be able to “hone in” and get a read on who is worth her time and energy from the very start.
“Clarity of reading auras and character of a person, if that could be my superpower for every person I meet, so that I know like, ‘Cool, cool. I’m gonna go,’ or, ‘Cool. Cool, let’s have a conversation,’ that’d be great,” she said with a laugh. “You know, just hone in even sharper and get like a really clear read, like in a sci-fi movie where there’s like something written by your head and [alerts you], ’This person is a psychopath!’”
That trick would certainly come in handy for someone as busy as DeBose, who has a plethora of projects dropping in the next year including films like Love Hurts, with Ke Huy Quan, and Lear Rex opposite Al Pacino. She’s also celebrating the release of Kraven, which hit theaters on Friday, December 13.
DeBose is particularly proud of her introduction into the Sony Marvel universe, which features her in a role that is so much more than a typical love interest. DeBose told Us that Calypso’s “badassery” and “intellect” shine much brighter than her relationship with Kraven, portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
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“I liked the idea of playing a character like that,” she explained. “I love that she is a part of an origin story. You know, this is Kraven’s origin story, the how he came to be, and I think, given context, what becomes a partnership between him and Calypso and partnership between men and women on screen, that is not always implied to be romantic, I think that can be a rarity in the industry. And I was very intrigued by that.”
Kraven the Hunter is now playing in theaters.
