NC’s Ariana DeBose nominated for Golden Globe for her role in ‘West Side Story’
“West Side Story” star Ariana DeBose has been generating awards buzz and praise among critics, and Monday she earned her first two major nominations of the awards season.
DeBose, of Raleigh and Wake Forest, was nominated for her first Golden Globe Award for her supporting role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of the classic film. The film was released in theaters on Friday.
A few hours later, she was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the Golden Globe nominees Monday. “West Side Story” earned other Golden Globe nominations, including a Best Picture nomination, a Best Director nomination for Steven Spielberg and a Best Actress nomination for Rachel Zegler.
The Golden Globes ceremony is Jan. 9, but there has been no announcement about whether it will be televised.
The Critics’ Choice Awards show will be broadcast on Jan. 9 on TBS and The CW.
The role of Anita already is a winning one. Rita Moreno, who starred in the 1961 film, won an Oscar in 1962 for Best Supporting Actress. Moreno returns in the new “West Side Story” but in a role created for her — Valentina, the widow of the character, Doc, from the original film. Moreno was also nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award on Monday, in the same category as DeBose.
Debose, a Broadway and film star, is a triple threat — she sings, dances and acts. She has played “The Bullet” in the original Broadway cast of “Hamilton”; performed on stage in “A Bronx Tale” and “Bring It On: The Musical”; and starred in the 2020 Netflix film “The Prom” with Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman.
She already has earned a Tony nomination for her performance as Disco Donna in “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.”
In numerous reviews that praise various cast members, including Rachel Zegler, David Alvarez and Moreno, DeBose is often singled out.
In the Los Angeles Times: “Alvarez, Zegler and especially DeBose give such vibrant, emotionally immediate performances.”
In The New York Times: “It helps that Alvarez, (Mike) Faist and — supremely — DeBose are such magnetic performers. When DeBose is onscreen, nothing else matters but what Anita is feeling.”
In Variety: “It’s hard to overpraise Ariana DeBose, whose Anita is the wounded soul of the film. She has the best lines, dances and sings with so much passion that the screen can hardly contain her.”
In an interview with The News & Observer on Friday, DeBose said the part of Anita is one she feels she was built to play.
“Anita is one of the greatest roles ever written in the musical theater canon,” DeBose said. “It’s a triple-threat role and it’s exactly what I am built to do. That’s exactly what my training and skill set has gifted me, so it’s a role I had always hoped I’d get a chance to play. ... I certainly never thought that I’d end up in a Spielberg film, but it was definitely a bucket list role.”
She is the first Afro-Latina actress to play Anita, and she made sure Spielberg knew that representation was important to her in the role.
A busy awards season ahead
In addition to Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations, “West Side Story” could get a lot of attention during awards season.
▪ The Screen Actors Guild announces its nominations on Jan. 12, with winners announced during a broadcast on TNT and TBS on Feb. 27.
▪ Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 8, with the ceremony airing on ABC on March 27.
DeBose said if she gets invited to the Oscar ceremony, she hopes her mother, a teacher at Wakefield Middle School in Raleigh, will accompany her.
“I’m assuming she would take off work to come to the Oscars with me, if that is a thing that happens,” DeBose said. “Who knows. Can you imagine Gina DeBose on a red carpet? I can. I think it will be fun.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 9:22 AM.