-I'm so happy you're here.
Thank you so much for coming back.
-Are you kidding? I'm so happy to be here.
-You were here before. -I was. I was sweating.
-You were sweating -- You were Donna Summer.
-I was. I was disco Donna Summer,
and I kid you not, thank you to that one person.
[ Cheers and applause ] Only to you.
-It only takes one. It only takes one.
-No, I remember them saying,
"Yeah, you're gonna be on 'Jimmy Fallon,'"
and I said, "Are you sure you don't want to do
one of LaChanze's songs, because she's very famous
and a really good singer. -No, you were --
Here you are here. There's a picture of all of you guys.
All three Donnas. Yeah.
-Oh, my gosh. [ Cheers and applause ]
Yes! Storm Lever, LaChanze. But we did "MacArthur Park."
Yo, yo, yo, with that fire band over there.
-That's right, yeah. -Oh, my gosh.
-"MacArthur park." I mean, loved it.
-Yeah.
-And then I found out that I've seen you even before that.
-Uh-huh. -You were in "Hamilton."
-I was. [ Cheers and applause ]
I was, I was, I was.
-You were the bullet. -Yes.
-Now talk to me about this.
-Okay, well -- [ chuckles ] -- it's hard.
-Yeah. -'Cause, spoiler alert, he dies.
-Yes, okay, yep. [ Laughter ]
-So when we were rehearsing, Andy Blankenbuehler was like,
"Come here, Ari. You're gonna trace this bullet,
and the first time, you're gonna miss him."
And I said, "That's awesome, cool.
So I'm gonna just do that? Great."
He said, "You're gonna do it a second time,
and then that time, he's gonna die."
And I was like, "Okay. I'm playing an inanimate object.
Awesome." [ Laughter ]
So, as an actor I was like,
"How do I make this work for myself," you know?
So I just started filling in the blanks.
And I said, "What about an omen of death?"
Maybe she's like, you know, death itself.
-Wow! So you really made it a character.
-I sure did. And guess what -- no one but me knew that.
[ Laughter ]
In fact, to this day, I'm pretty sure
the creative team is like, "What are you talking about?"
-Yeah, they're like, "Oh, that's what you were thinking?"
-Yeah, "How creative of you."
-But then we get -- Now you're a movie star.
I saw you in "The Prom." -Yeah.
-With Nicole Kidman... -Uh-huh.
-...Meryl Streep. -Yeah!
-That's big leagues. -Yeah, I was stressed
on that movie too. [ Laughter ]
No, it was great. So one of my first days on set
was actually during one of Meryl's big numbers,
called "It's Not About Me."
And when Meryl is performing, like, you clap after every take,
so naturally, I was very attentive, right?
And she's killing it, mind you. -Yeah.
-So the one time I was like,
"Oh, I got something on my skirt. Oh, no.
Let me just clean that off real quick."
I look up, and she says, "You're not clapping.
[ Laughter ]
"Was it not...good." -"Was it bad?"
[ Laughter ]
-Wow! Busted. -I went full, like, Andy --
"No, no, no, no! You were great, you were great."
And... [ Laughter ]
-Yeah! Of course. Meryl Streep.
-I literally got on the floor and bowed
because I was so stressed out! -Yes!
"Like, no way I didn't clap. But, yeah, you're Meryl Streep."
Come on. -And you do --
you bow to the queen, and it all works great.
But she was great. Everyone was great.
Nicole came and offered me carrots one day,
and I will remember that till the day that I die.
-Isn't it weird, the moments you remember?
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-'Cause you wonder if they remember those moments.
-Oh, she has no idea. [ Laughter ]
None. "Ariana, you want a carrot?"
"What?" "Ariana, you want a carrot?"
And I was -- "Yeah! I do!"
-"Yeah, I do!" -"I do!"
-"I absolutely want that carrot!"
-"You give me that carrot!" -"Carrot right now!"
You're hosting "Saturday Night Live"
this weekend. -Yes, I am.
-I know. Are you now going like,
"What did I get myself into?" -Actually, no,
but I have to tell you, most of Twitter was like,
"Cool, cool, cool. Didn't you just, like,
misspell 'Grande'?" [ Laughter ]
And I was like -- [ Rimshot ]
A-yo! Here all week.
Actually, just Saturday. [ Laughter ]
-"I'm here all week. Or, no, only on Saturday."
-I kid you not, though, there was one lady, Carol --
poor Carol -- she said, "Who are you?
I don't know who you are. Explain yourself."
[ Laughter ] -What?
-And I was like, "Oh, this is terrible.
Well, here's my résumé." [ Laughter ]
-I mean -- You're very acclaimed.
I will tell Carol exactly who you are.
-Dear Carol, I hope you tune in, and I'm sorry
you didn't know who I was,
but I promise we'll give you a good show.
-We'll give you a great show, and you're gonna love
Ariana DeBose. I want to talk to you about
"West Side Story" when we come back.
More with Ariana. Come on back, everybody.