You Might Also Like: Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb

**Hoda Kotb** (0:10)
Hey, guys, welcome to the Joy 101 podcast. Okay, imagine this for a second. You're a kid and you love dancing so much that you go into a competition called So You Think You Can Dance. And you're nervous and your palms are sweaty and you get out on stage and you wind up finishing 20th. Okay, what would you say to yourself?
I wonder if this is for me. I wonder if I should keep doing this. Well, my next guest didn't just keep doing that. My next guest wound up on Broadway and was Tony nominated. My next guest wound up in a musical, a Steven Spielberg musical, nominated for an Academy Award and won the Oscar. How about that? Ariana DeBose is the person who I am talking about. She is an actress who grew up with a single mom, loving dance. She danced since she was three.
And she was one of those people who knew what her calling was. Imagine knowing so much that no matter how many times people hit you down, no matter how many times someone said, I'm not you, there are 19 other people better than you at this dance competition. Imagine that you come back and imagine that you get Tony nominated and you are Oscar nominated and you win the Oscar. I mean, there are so many people who are in that category. They don't win earlier in life, but as life rolls on, their winnings come. So this is a fascinating conversation about resilience, about bouncing back, about what is possible, about the heights you can reach, all of these things Ariana DeBose possesses. So I hope you enjoy this conversation.
First of all, I'm so happy to have you here.

**Ariana DeBose** (2:02)
Thank you.

**Hoda Kotb** (2:02)
I met you many, many years ago on The Today Show when you were just breaking out.

**Ariana DeBose** (2:08)
Yeah.

**Hoda Kotb** (2:08)
You've since become Tony nominated, Oscar winner and all the things. But I want to just hit on something you just said. You went on a solo vacation and that to me stands out. Because it takes courage, it takes moxie, I think.
Did it for you? Tell me why you wanted to take a solo vacation and what that did for you.

**Ariana DeBose** (2:31)
Yeah. I mean, I'd never been on one.

**Hoda Kotb** (2:33)
Yeah.

**Ariana DeBose** (2:35)
I'm 35 now, so I would have been 34
I was like, this feels crazy. Yeah. I had this realization right before I decided to go. I was like, all I've done is work. I don't know that I've ever really taken a proper vacation. I'm someone who believes in me time, and I believe in finding those tools to help yourself unwind, and I have them, but not outside of the context of what it is I need to do for myself in order to be able to keep working.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:05)
So this is fill the tank to work. Fill the tank to work.

**Ariana DeBose** (3:07)
Fill the tank to work.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:08)
Got it. Okay.

**Ariana DeBose** (3:09)
I was like, I need to go fill the tank to live. So I was like, I'm going to go to Greece.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:16)
So you got a ticket?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:17)
I got a ticket.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:18)
Got a hotel?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:18)
I got a hotel.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:19)
I'm like walked around Athens.

**Milana Snow** (3:21)
Okay. So wait.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:22)
First, you check into your hotel. There you are in your room. You're hungry.

**Ariana DeBose** (3:26)
Yes.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:26)
So do you go downstairs? Do you go to a restaurant?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:30)
Well, I go for a walk.

**Ariana DeBose** (3:32)
Well, I opened the bottle of rosé champagne that I ordered to be in my room, and had a little mini moment for myself. Then I went for my nice little stroll.

**Hoda Kotb** (3:42)
What was that like?

**Ariana DeBose** (3:43)
Fabulous. Well, the area was great, but it's just taking the architecture and the people and the energy. I was like, I will have this panic obituary. Gorgeous. Then I bopped into just a lovely restaurant that I don't know the name of, but it looked so beautiful and idyllic, and the people couldn't have been more lovely.

**Hoda Kotb** (4:02)
So you sat, enjoyed a meal?

**Ariana DeBose** (4:04)
I literally just said, I'll have the special. It was this family cabbage recipe with this beautiful lemon sauce on it.

**Hoda Kotb** (4:13)
That sounds so good. Do you sit with a book, with headphones, with anything, or is it just you?

**Ariana DeBose** (4:19)
That particular evening, it was just me, and I forced myself to listen to the space I was in, and not be afraid of people making eye contact, or not being afraid of having a conversation, or not being afraid of the fact that I don't speak Greek.