Pop Culturalist Chats with Ariana Debose

Ariana DeBose is a triple threat: actress, dancer, and singer. She burst onto the scene when she competed on So You Think You Can Dance before moving into acting. Some of her many Broadway credits include Bring It On, Pippin, and, most notably, Hamilton. Currently, she has brought her dedication, thoughtful hard work, and talent to the role of Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. In fact, she received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for it.

From explaining how she approaches portraying a real person and developing new work to the most important thing she’s learned from all her varied experiences so far, Ariana brings the same thoughtfulness she exhibits in her roles to her life and to our conversation.

PC: Congratulations on your Tony nomination!
Ariana: Thank you very much! I’m totally surprised and shocked and still not over it.

PC: Where were you when you got that news?
Ariana: I was on my couch watching the livestream because I have a lot of friends in Broadway shows this season, and I wanted to support them. When I saw my face pop up on the screen, I burst into tears. It was really shocking in a great, wonderful way.

PC: In Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, there are three of you portraying her. How did you all approach that? Did you prepare together?
Ariana: I think there [is an] important things to remember in creating new work: there’s no template for what it is that we’re doing. So, what was really fun was that I could create my own version of this character and have my own perspective on this character; then [use] that as the foundation to come together with my other counterparts to create Donna as a whole. So, for example, my version of the character has a nervous tic. For me, that manifests in the scratching of my thigh. It’s very subtle. One day we were all sitting around, and Storm [Storm Lever plays Duckling Donna] had picked up on it. She said, “You know what? I think I’m going to try and use that gesture somewhere in my show.” It’s little things like that that we all started picking up on. What body language can the three of us evoke that gives you the sense that we’re all the same character? Besides [the fact that] the three of us all have very similar style wigs at different points in the show, we hit very specific poses that make it feel like we’re all the same person. It was a fun experiment to be able to go into a room with these two fantastic women and just talk about Donna. [We] notice what we each see that’s either something that’s common—something we all notice about her—or what we each individually notice about her, what can we use, what’s helpful, or what’s a distraction. There was a lot of dinner talk—or adult beverage talk [laughs]—where we waxed poetic about all the things we learned about her in order to create what we have.

PC: Did you feel any pressure because she is very iconic and is a real person?
Ariana: Definitely. As you mentioned, she was a real person. She is someone’s wife, someone’s friend, someone’s daughter, you know? There is a very specific kind of pressure when you’re playing a real person; you want to try and represent them in the most honest and true way that you can while being respectful. It became my mission to not impersonate her but to try and grab the essence of who she was and bring that to what I do eight times a week.

There’s also a responsibility to her fans. They love not only her, but [also] her music. I really have come to believe that I would be doing a disservice to her memory if I tried to impersonate her, or tried to sound exactly like her because there is never going to be another Donna Summer. But what I can do is bring the best version of myself to this piece and try to honor her in that way.

Ariana DeBose as Disco Donna; Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy

PC: Since you’ve been with the production for a while—before it came to Broadway—what has been the most challenging thing you’ve had to do so far?
Ariana: The hardest thing is finding stamina or maintaining it. [In] the role of Disco Donna, I’m telling the story through singing, dancing, and acting all at the same time. Also, my track is quite truncated. So, I tell a portion of the story, and then I go away. Then, I tell another portion of the story and go away. And, then, I tell a portion of the story, and I’m there for quite a while…and then I go away. It’s like, “How do you maintain stamina whilst doing all these activities and stay in the moment?” It’s a great lesson in multi-tasking—dnd how to do it honestly.

PC: What is your favorite part of the show?
Ariana: There are a few. Right now, I would say there is a section in the show where we do “She Works Hard for the Money,” and we use that song to portray Donna’s journey through reclaiming the rights to her music, severing ties with Casablanca Records, and moving to David Geffen Records. That’s the moment in the show where she’s taking her power back, owning her career, and becoming her own boss. I really love that—because that song is not only an anthem for women, but it’s also 2018 which is the time of #MeToo and #TimesUp. I think that watching this character going through that moment in her life is a good reminder that this [fight for women] was going down in the late 70s and early 80s. Things like that are still happening; we still have a long way to go. I think that’s ok to say: we have a long way to go. But, the future is female and it can be done. I think, right now, that’s my favorite part of the show.

PC: Is there a part of Donna that you most identify with?
Ariana: This is a recent revelation for myself….I do identify with her feeling of being uncomfortable with being called the “Disco Queen.” She felt that title put her in a box; [it] pigeon-holed her in a way. I have felt like that a couple different times in my life. You know, when you garner such a label it does restrict your ability to do other things, and that’s something I constantly try to fight. That’s something I pride myself on: being versatile within my career and the jobs that I accept so not one of my shows have been similar to another. I love that. But I do identify with that—that she’s uncomfortable with labels because I am as well.

“The longer you have the opportunity to live with a character or live with a piece, the more you learn. That’s the beauty of creating theater.”

PC: Based on the fact that all the roles you have done are so different, is there one that stands out to you as the most challenging role that you’ve taken on?
Ariana: They’re all challenging. Here’s why. Every job I’ve taken has had a different lesson to teach me, right? Bring It On was my Broadway debut, and that was challenging because I had to learn the ropes and learn what it meant to do eight times a week in New York City. I was stunting and singing and dancing. I was more of a featured character, but I had to figure out what that meant and how to handle the pressures of that. I was 21 when I made my debut, but I had so much to learn about the business. So I learned a lot about the business with that job. Motown was a cultural show and that was my first taste of playing a real person. I was playing Mary Wilson, and I was a Diana Ross cover. I had the privilege of going on quite a lot. That was my first taste of playing an icon. And, then with Pippin, I was in the ensemble and covering the leading lady, but I had to learn how to do trapeze work. I’m scared of heights. So that was challenging in a physical way. Then Hamilton was its own whirlwind of challenges, being a part of the show that literally changed the way the world views musical theater. We changed the standards within our community, and we were able to influence so many different parts of society. Feeling the repercussions of that…nothing will ever compare to it. Then with A Bronx Tale, I was working with a very different creative team in a very different capacity. I wasn’t really dancing; I was standing and singing and talking. I was working with a group of legends. How do you navigate a room like that? How do you say what you need to say and be heard without being misunderstood? So all of those challenges got me to Donna. And Donna has its own set of challenges as well.

PC: Is there one larger takeaway from each of these different sets of challenges that you have come to learn about yourself as a performer? One overarching lesson?
Ariana: I think Tommy Kail, the director of Hamilton, he said, “I appreciate that you know what you know.” I don’t think I understood it as the time, but, now, looking back—to me—that means I will always know what I know from my own experience, but every time I start a new job I “know nothing Jon Snow.” And that’s ok. You know what I mean? You start over; you start fresh. You’re never going to be the smartest person in the room, but it’s not about being the smartest person in the room. It’s about bringing your ideas and making the best possible product. That’s been the overall takeaway of my journey thus far.

PC: For at least Donna Summer and Hamilton, you’ve had the experience with the show pre-Broadway. How is that different from just, say, A Bronx Tale that didn’t have that off-Broadway piece for you personally?
Ariana: I pride myself on being a creator. With Hamilton, I was lucky enough to be a part of that journey from the reading to the workshop to the off-Broadway show and then on Broadway. With A Bronx Tale, I was specifically hired for the Broadway production. I had done a few readings early, early on, [but] never as the character I ended up playing. There’s a whole chapter in there that I missed. I do think that when you do like to create, the long game is more interesting. It’s been more interesting with Donna as well. I was able to do the out of town workshop and tryout; now I’m on Broadway. The longer you have the opportunity to live with a character or live with a piece, the more you learn. That’s the beauty of creating theater, I think. I think a lot of actors would tell you that’s the beauty of living in a character on a TV series. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that kind of work, but I know a lot of people who have, and they say the longer they live with a character, the deeper they can go, the more they learn, and the more fulfilling and rewarding the experience is.

PC: Looking ahead, do you have a dream role or type of project you see yourself working on?
Ariana: I don’t necessarily have a “dream role.” As I said before, I like creating. I never know what the subject matter is going to be that I get to create from, but I do know the types of things I like to work on. I like stories about determination and perseverance and female-centric storylines. I like it when I get to be physical; I like doing my own stunts. I’d like to continue to challenge myself. I have a little bit of experience in film and TV, but not a ton so I plan to go back to the drawing board and get my butt in class and start training again to see if that’s something I want to move into. I like a good challenge. I like female-centric stories that need to be told. I like being able to represent a face that you see in the real world. I think it’s very important to allow people to see themselves in [characters]. So, that’s what I look for in something I might consider to be a dream role.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

Last Show You Binged-Watched
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Artist or Band You Could Listen to on Repeat
Elton John

Favorite Place You Have Traveled to
Italy. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Place You Want to go To
Greece!

If You Were Not An Actor, What Would You Do? 
I’d probably be a lawyer or something in the public service realm.

Person You’d Most Like to Meet Someday
There are so many worthy people we should want to meet. I think I would like to have coffee with Hilary Clinton. I would like to pick her brain about some things. That coffee might get a little heated, but I think there’s a lot you can learn about a person over coffee.

If There Was a Show They Remade That You Could Be Involved With, What Would it Be? 
Designing Women. I love that show. The writing was everything! I’m right here, Julia Sugarbaker. Cast me, please!

Stay up-to-date with Ariana DeBose by following her on Twitter and Instagram. For more information and tickets for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, click here.