Ariana DeBose Reveals Why This May Be the Last Time She Hosts the Tony Awards ‘for a While’ (Exclusive)

PEOPLE caught up with the Oscar winner to debate her function as emcee on Broadway’s greatest evening

• The 2024 Tony Awards are being hosted by Ariana DeBose, a gig that can mark her third time in a row internet hosting

• She tells PEOPLE what she loves about being the emcee for the Broadway honors, however notes she doesn’t plan on internet hosting once more ‘for awhile’ after this

• Viewers can watch DeBose when the awards air Sunday, June 16, on CBS and Paramount+

has hosted the twice earlier than, however the stress she feels main Broadway’s greatest evening hasn’t gone away.

“Oh, yearly I wish to throw up,” the Oscar-winning actress and stage vet, 33, tells PEOPLE, within the newest points on newsstands now. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve a trash can ready within the wings.”

“I by no means in one million years thought I’d host the Tony Awards. That was not in any form of plan that I noticed for myself. And final yr I used to be so nervous. I paced for a strong half-hour on my own,” she remembers. “I’ve by no means carried out that within the historical past of my performing profession.”

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Viewers watching DeBose actually couldn’t inform — particularly in final yr’s dance-centric opening quantity, when of New York Metropolis’s United Palace theater in Washington Heights solely to be caught, one flight down, by dancer Julius Anthony Rubio.

Maybe that’s as a result of DeBose makes all of it look really easy.

A skilled dancer, expert singer and dynamic actress, she has that triple menace vitality so typically current in performers working the boards on Broadway.

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However its the North Carolina native’s willingness to take daring dangers and commit totally to her work with full earnestness that has helped her stand out from the group, breaking her free from ensemble roles in Hamilton to distinguished elements onstage, like in 2018’s Summer season (which earned DeBose her first Tony nomination).

That theatricality has served DeBose effectively in her transfer to display screen, too, the place she’s been capable of exhibit her abilities in Schmigadoon!, The Promenade, because the voice of and, in .

She’s particularly blissful as a result of, in her function, DeBose is ready to function an envoy to convey new eyes to the theater.

“The Tony Awards is an important second for the Broadway neighborhood, and an evening that has actual financial affect on how this trade features. So it looks like a sacred accountability to be there to point out what they’ve to supply, and one thing I don’t take evenly,” she shares, noting the struggles the stage neighborhood has had in rebuilding audiences after the pandemic.

“There’s such an unlimited number of expertise and creativity on show on these phases,” she provides. “There’s really no place like Broadway. And I’m grateful that I’ve even a fraction of the platform that I maintain to attempt to be a useful entity.”

That doesn’t imply that internet hosting is simple. These aforementioned nerves apart, DeBose has needed to face numerous challenges annually she’s hosted — from the trade’s emergence post-pandemic to final yr’s author’s strike, which noticed DeBose host solely with out a script.

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This yr shall be current a brand new impediment: one other new location. “We began at Radio Metropolis, and we had been up in Washington Heights, and this yr we’re at Lincoln Middle. So yearly it’s been totally different,” DeBose says.

“You suppose it wouldn’t matter, however every location has its personal vitality. You need to consider how the viewers fills the area, what different issues you are able to do.”

It doesn’t matter what DeBose does, she plans to maintain issues optimistic.

“Once you have a look at the opposite award reveals which are predominately about movie and tv, most of these are hosted by comedians. A comic, I’m not,” she laughs.

“However I have a look at that as a power and go down a unique path. I’m an actor; I really like the individuals I’m surrounded by. So I select to have a good time that and let the vitality and pleasure of the night lead.”

She’s additionally keenly conscious of the feelings of the nominees within the room, having been one herself. “That’s on the forefront of my thoughts,” DeBose notes to PEOPLE.

“The nominees, they’ve been on a really lengthy street,” she explains. “It’s, for lack of a greater phrase, a marketing campaign, and it takes a lot vitality. Lots of occasions individuals haven’t slept. And regarding the Tony Awards, not solely are they exhibiting as much as occasion after occasion — doing photograph shoots, going to lunches, doing the interviews — but additionally, they’re additionally doing their present eight occasions every week at evening.”

She continues: “That’s a complete different stage of stamina that’s added to all of this. Watch me and also you’ll see, I attempt to be very delicate to that and discover methods actually allow them to get pleasure from themselves. As a result of fairly frankly, they’ve earned it.”

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DeBose has additionally earned one thing herself: a well-needed break. After just a few years of working continuous, she allowed herself some area the previous few months (although nonetheless has seven tasks in pre and post-production, together with the upcoming Kraven the Hunter).

Nonetheless, the time to herself has allowed her to concentrate on what she desires subsequent: a return to Broadway. “I’m actually craving being again on stage, in a bigger means than merely internet hosting the Tonys,” she says. “And for that cause, this can in all probability be one of many final occasions I host for some time, so another person can maintain the ropes.”

“I’ll go away them my bucket,” she jokes.

The airs Sunday, June 16, on CBS and Paramount+ starting at 8 p.m. ET. Choose awards shall be handed out in a pre-show viewers can stream that starting at 6:30 p.m. ET on Pluto TV, the main free streaming tv service.

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