Starting her career in the 1980s, Angela Bassett’s notable performances include parts in August Wilson’s plays Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come, and Gone at the Yale Repertory Theatre. During the mid-1980s, she played in Spencer: For Hire, The Cosby Show, and A Man Called Hawk.
Her most known appearances were in Akkelah and the Bee (2006), Notorious (2009), Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame (2019), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and many more.
Bassett has taken on many roles as a mother in popular films. She played the mother in Notorious, Akkelah and the Bee, and Jumping the Broom (2011). Between 2013 to 2018 Bassett played television roles in American Horror Story and 9-1-1.
She served as an executive producer for the show 9-1-1 and its spin-off, 9-1-1: Lone Star. She has performed in multiple animated movies such as Meet the Robinsons (2007), Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle (2015), and Soul (2020). Bassett alongside Vance wrote the memoir Friends: A Love Story (2007).
Recently social media went into a frenzy over actress, Jamie Lee Curtis winning the best actress in a supporting role award rather than her competitor Angela Bassett. Bassett was nominated for her supporting role in the Black Panther sequel.
She made history after becoming the very first actor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to receive both a Golden Globe acting nomination and win for a Marvel film and win the Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. To make matters better, Bassett was the first person to be nominated for her performance in a Marvel film at the Oscars.
Since the Academy doesn’t usually consider Marvel movies in the same vein as other films; she is the first person to be nominated for a role in a Marvel film. Black Panther was the first and only Marvel movie to receive a nomination for Best Picture as well. As you can see, Bassett has proven to be worthy of an Oscar because of her remarkable, impactful, and admired roles in many films and series. However, the Academy thinks differently. Why?
It has been 29 years since Bassett’s last Oscar nomination, for starring as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It”. According to her, Queen Ramonda “is reflective of what mothers have been doing forever, and also a representation of what Black mothers have been doing – holding families together. Holding memories, holding wisdom… That’s what she is attempting to do despite the trauma she has experienced herself.”
She also mentioned her late co-star, Chadwick Boseman, “This moment has been so special, it’s been a highlight of my career,” she said. “He definitely kicked it off.”
The media have yet again called out the Awards for the snubbing of a movie in the superhero genre. Last year, Marvel fans called foul of the Academy for not nominating Spider Man: No Way Home in the category of Best Picture.
Not only has Bassett excelled in acting, but she made her mark as a director and producer. She directed the 2015 film Whitney, a biopic about Whitney Houston and played U.S. Secret Service in the action thriller Olympus Has Fallen (2016) and has produced several films and television shows.
She’s been placed as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, awarded Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Award, 13 NAACP Image Awards, and many others. She has been nominated for only two Oscars; unfortunately, she lost in 1994 for Best Actress to Holly Hunter and Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role to Jamie Lee Curtis. For her role as Queen Ramonda, she won a Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, and NAACP Image Award in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, directed by Ryan Coogler has a box total of $842.3 million and was released on Disney+ on February 1 after a lengthy 83-day theatrical run. This film has five Oscar nominations and has set a record for being the most-viewed Marvel premiere globally on Disney+.
As you can see, Bassett has had an enormous contribution to the entertainment industry and has been adored as a public figure in the eyes of so many across the world.