Bafta-winning actress Ariana DeBose turned down audition four times

Bafta award-winning actress Ariana DeBose turned down four auditions with Steven Spielberg for his adaptation of Broadway hit West Side Story.

The US star picked up the supporting actress prize at the star-studded ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London for her turn as Anita.

Casting director for the film Cindy Tolan, who also won a Bafta for the film, described how she pleaded with DeBose to audition for directing giant Spielberg.

“I tried to get Ariana DeBose to audition four times, she would not come in.

“She was busy, she was working on Broadway and she was rehearsing in previews for the summer show, she said ‘I am never going to get this, I’m working’.

“Finally I picked up the phone and I called her directly, it was 10.30pm we were having a big day the next day, I said ‘I need you to come in, I need you to come to Brooklyn and I need you to meet Steven Spielberg’.

“She said ‘Cindy it’s so far, I am in rehearsal, you’re giving me 20 pages of sides, I can’t read this, I’m not going to be able to do it, I will sing and I will dance. That I know I can do.’

“She came, she sung and she danced and then Steven said ‘great will you now read for me’ and she said ‘no’, so he said ‘will you come back and read’ and she said ‘yes of course I will’,” Tolan added.

DeBose is also a frontrunner to scoop an award at the Oscars for her role in the musical, having won this year’s Golden Globe for best performance by an actress in a supporting role for her performance.

Speaking backstage after her win, the 31-year-old said: “Go in and show them what you have to offer, you are absolutely worthy, that is what this experience has taught me.

“It has been the wildest ride of my life and getting wilder every day.

“I will say it has been so overwhelming and exciting, this doesn’t happen every day, but I am excited by the opportunity to work with different people – there is a rumour I am going to be in a Sony Marvel film, I am looking for new art to make.

“I am so impressed with Bafta, lots of different types of stories have been told this year and I am thrilled to be amongst these people. It’s nice to be in a room of diverse people, there is more space for us.”

DeBose was also nominated for this year’s Bafta Rising Star award, which went to No Time To Die’s Lashana Lynch who said she was “blown away” by the prize.

When asked about the response to her role as the first female 007, the Bond actress, 34, said: “I expected the world to react exactly how they reacted.

“I encouraged the dislike, the non-support, because it reminded me of the work I have to do and the industry needs to do, I’m grateful for everyone who sent a bad message.”

The actress added that she was going to give the prize to her mother because “I don’t know what to do with it”.

Actress Joanna Scanlan was similarly overwhelmed after being named the winner of the top acting prize for her portrayal of a Muslim convert uncovering the secret life led by her late husband.

Struggling to hold back her tears, Scanlan said backstage: “I am disbelieving to be perfectly honest, I feel shaky, life has yet to catch up with me.

“To be honoured by Bafta in film as a leading actress is the highest accolade I could ever aspire to… I just never imagined that I would receive this honour, genuinely.

“I hope I get a really exciting chunky short film and also a Bond audition.

“It’s doing your thing and working in a way that means something to people – that’s what I want to do until the day I die.”

Similarly, Coda star Troy Kotsur said winning the Bafta for best supporting actor is a “big pay-off for many years of hellish times”.

Speaking backstage, the deaf actor, 53, said: “I am extremely thrilled… I feel like a survivor, at times I sofa-surfed, I slept on the bed on set, all the choices I made, I was such a risk-taker… I just kept on in this crazy journey and I believed in myself.

“I feel like I have been an outsider for so long, you have to push your way in but now it feels like filmmakers are thinking outside of the box, trust me there are some great work to come.”

The Power Of The Dog director Jane Campion also appeared on a video call during the press conference to say she was “speechless” after her brooding western was named best film at the Baftas.

During the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall, the film’s producer Tanya Seghatchian collected the best director prize on her behalf.