Ariana Grande may already be a superstar in the music world, but she accepted the “Rising Star” Award at the Palm Springs International Film Awards on Friday for her breakout performance in Wicked.
Taking the stage at the Palm Springs Convention Center, Grande acknowledged the slight irony of the award, joking, “I’ve been performing since I was a child, so I never thought at the age of 31 I’d be hearing the words ‘Rising Star’ again, so I want to start by thanking my good friends Botox and Juvederm. I thought I’d be hearing ‘Slightly Withering Star’ or ‘Drooping Star’ by now, so thank you.”
The pop star, who plays Glinda in the hit musical adaptation, also shouted out her “sister witch” Cynthia Erivo and director Jon M. Chu, and teased that she “started out in stand-up comedy” after she would perform in her living room at four years old and be paid $5 for her jokes.
Now returning to that comedy in Wicked “really does feel like the beginning of a new chapter,” Grande continued. “Though Glinda the good is full of frivolous humor and witty punchlines, comedy is just another way of telling the truth. She has an innate ability to make light out of darkness, even when there is pain, and I’m so grateful to have lived in that, to have learned so much from her over these past three years.”
Speaking of comedy, Grande went viral for her spot-on impression of Jennifer Coolidge while hosting Saturday Night Live last year. The two are actually friends and Coolidge agreed to make the drive to the desert to honor Grande at the event. “It’s so great to be here in beautiful Palm Springs,” said The White Lotus Emmy Award winner in opening her tribute. “I was wondering where all the L.A. gays went? Now I know. I feel right at home, I really do. This is amazing.”
She used the same adjective to describe Grande’s work in Wicked before taking aim at the title of the award. “I don’t want to argue with the Palm Springs power gays or their little 19-year-old handsome dates but I just thought rising star? Hasn’t Ariana Grande already risen? I mean, the girl’s barely 30 and it feels like she’s been famous since the Eisenhower administration. I do have a theory about Ariana: She’s actually a very old person and she just has really good skin. She could be like 90 years old, who knows?”
Grande showed that same love back to Coolidge, saying, “Thank you Jennifer for doing this for me, for show up, for coming all this way. I can’t tell you what it means to me. Your comedic genius, your brilliance, has inspired me my entire life. I just love you.”
The Film Awards gala is the annual and always star-studded kick-off to the Palm Springs International Film Festival. The event saw trophies presented to The Brutalist star Adrien Brody (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor), A Complete Unknown’s Timothee Chalamet (Chairman’s Award), A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actor), Sing Sing’s Colman Domingo (Spotlight Award, Actor), Maria’s Angelina Jolie (Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress), Babygirl’s Nicole Kidman (International Star Award), Anora’s Mikey Madison (Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress), Dune auteur Denis Villeneuve (Visionary Award), the Conclave cast (Ensemble Performance Award), and the team from Emilia Perez (Vanguard Award) including Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, Edgar Ramirez, Karla Sofia Gascon and auteur Jacques Audiard.
