Angela Bassett Shouted Out Ariana DeBose At NAACP Awards, “I Guess Angela Bassett Did The Thing!”

Ariana DeBose inadvertently caused one of the most viral moments of this 2023 awards season when she performed a rap at the BAFTAs on Feb. 19 shouting out this year’s female nominees. One line in her performance stood out from the rest: “Angela Bassett did the thing!”

Plenty of people on social media had confused or even negative reactions to the performance (so much so that it caused DeBose to delete her Twitter account).

But the one person whose opinion matters most in all this — Bassett herself — has embraced it. Bassett picked up three awards at the NAACP Image Awards this past Saturday (Feb. 25), and during her acceptance speech for Entertainer of the Year, she called back the lyrics to the rap and declared, “I guess Angela Bassett did the thing!”

"I guess Angela Bassett did the thing" – Angela Bassett as she accepts her entertainer of the year award at the #NAACPImageAwards pic.twitter.com/mevSTcKhUS

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 26, 2023

Bassett, who was honored at the award show for her work in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as well as on the TV series 9-1-1, spoke about DeBose earlier in the week after DeBose’s performance became the subject of debate.

Bassett told Variety she messaged DeBose, saying, “I DM’d her last night. I did. It was beautiful.” She added, ““I just wanted to make sure she was okay because, you know, it’s a lot of attention. And she is A-Okay.”

As viral moments go, there was nothing particularly scandalous or off-color about DeBose’s performance, and it actually seemed like a majority of the audience fully embraced the exuberance and empowerment of it all.

For Bassett to call it back and own the phrase? Well, is the perfect button on the thing.