Jamie Lee Curtis Drops Expletive-Ridden Defense Of Ariana DeBose After Her Singing Skills Are Dissed By Bella Ramsey At Critics Choice Awards: “Are You F*cking Kidding Me!”

At this past weekend’s Critics Choice Awards, Ariana DeBose did not find the joke made at her expense to be particularly amusing, and neither did Jamie Lee Curtis.

For those who didn’t tune into the awards show held on Sunday night (Jan. 14), DeBose was nominated for Best Song with “This Wish,” which she sang in Disney-Pixar’s Wish. Presenters Bella Ramsey and Anthony Ramos were tasked with bestowing the award — which ultimately went to Ryan Gosling for the hit Barbie ballad “I’m Just Ken” — and joked that DeBose, Gosling, and fellow nominee Jack Black were “actors who also think they are singers.”

This was in contrast to the other category’s nominees — Billie Eilish (“What Was I Made For”), Dua Lipa (“Dance The Night”) and Lenny Kravitz (“Road to Freedom”) — whose songs were described by Ramsey and Ramos as “delivered by some of the most famous voices in the music industry.”

Curtis took to Instagram to share a video that included a snippet of Ramsey making the joke preceding clips of DeBose singing, per Variety. While the post has since been deleted, Curtis had captioned it, “Are you fucking kidding me! Ariana DeBose is a queen. #backthefuckoff #shutthefuckup,” per Variety.

As for DeBose’s reaction, in addition to being caught on camera in the audience looking perplexed, she also expressed her distaste via Instagram, sharing on her Story that she “didn’t find it funny,” per People.

Ariana DeBose reacts to being included in “actors who think they are singers” bit at the Critics Choice Awards:

“No I didn’t find it funny. Lol.” pic.twitter.com/NG2u0ciuQn

— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 15, 2024

With respect to DeBose’s music talent, she began her career on Broadway and later earned an Oscar for her performance as Anita in the 2021 film adaptation of West Side Story, per Us Weekly. In addition to her Oscar win and her Critics Choice nomination, she has been nominated for a Tony.

Fans of DeBose flocked to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), to defend her and clap back at the writers behind the joke, as Ramsey was only responsible for reading it off of a teleprompter. Some have even come after Curtis for the post, questioning why she was “telling Bella Ramsey to ‘shut the fuck up’ for reading a script they didn’t write?”

Nonetheless, DeBose and Ramsey seem to be on good terms, as the two shared a hug at last night’s Emmys, per Deadline.