Ariana DeBose speaks up about Critics Choice Awards joke directed at her

Ariana DeBose attends the 29th Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, January 14, 2024, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Photo / Invision

Ariana DeBose “didn’t find it funny” when she was mocked at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, January 14.

The Oscar-winning star - who has performed in several Broadway shows and won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in Steven Spielberg’s big screen musical West Side Story - was seen looking visibly unimpressed in the audience at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Sunday, January 14 when she was named among “actors who think they’re singers”.

Reading from the teleprompter as she presented Best Original Song, Bella Ramsey said the tracks in the category were “delivered by some of the most famous voices in the music industry”.

Co-presenter Anthony Ramos then named Billie Eilish, Lenny Kravitz and Dua Lipa.

The Last Of Us star continued: “Then there are the actors who also think that they’re singers – Jack Black, Ariana DeBose and Ken himself, Ryan Gosling.”

The camera then panned to DeBose - who was nominated from This Wish from Disney’s Wish but lost out to I’m Just Ken, which was written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt and sung by Ryan Gosling in Barbie - and she looked unhappy with the diss, and later took to Instagram to hit back.

She wrote: “No I didn’t find it funny. Lol.”

When Ronson and Wyatt took to the stage to accept the prize, they paid tribute to Gosling for his performance of the track.

Ariana DeBose took to Instagram after the ceremony to share her thoughts on the joke. Photo / Instagram

Ronson said: “Ryan Gosling, this is as much your award as ours,” Ronson said. “You made the audience fall in love with this song with your matchless performance, so thank you.”

He went on to thank director Greta Gerwig and her co-writer, husband Noah Baumbach, and lead actress Margot Robbie, who also produced the movie.

He said: “The fact that you carved out 11 minutes for this prog-rock, power-ballad, dream-ballet, shred fest so the boys could cry and hold hands a little too, we’re really forever in your debt for that.”