Angela Bassett

Early life and education

Bassett was born on August 16, 1958, in New York City. Her mother is Betty Jane (née Gilbert), a social worker and civil servant. Her father is Daniel Benjamin Bassett, a preacher's son. Bassett's middle name was given to her in honor of her aunt Evelyn. Ten months after Bassett was born, her mother became pregnant and had a second child, Bassett's sister D'nette. Bassett said the pregnancy "only made things harder", leading her parents to send her to her father's sister, Golden, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. While her aunt did not have any children of her own, she "loved children, and she was good with them."

At the age of four, Bassett was picked up by her mother after her parents divorced; her mother took her and her sister to St. Petersburg, Florida.

Bassett did not see her father again for several years, until she attended her grandmother's funeral. There, Bassett met her father's daughter Jean, from his first marriage, who was twelve years old, and several years older than Bassett.

After graduating from Jordan Park Elementary School, Bassett was bused to attend Disston Middle School for seventh grade. She began at that school in 1970, a year before the city of St. Petersburg formally established busing to integrate its public schools. After completing seventh grade, Bassett was bused to Azalea Middle School for eighth and ninth grades. Bassett's mother became more involved in her daughters' studies and told the two that they would go to college.

In her younger years, Bassett was "in love" with the Jackson 5, and dreamed of marrying a member of the family group. She said her choice would probably be "whoever had the cutest, roundest Afro at the time. In my imagination we would have children and live in a real house." As her interest in entertainment developed, Angela and her sister would often put on shows, reading poems or performing popular music for their family.

At Boca Ciega High School, Bassett was a cheerleader and a member of the Upward Bound college prep program, the debate team, student government, drama club and choir. An "A" and "B" student for the most part, Bassett got her first "C" in physical education. She tried to convince her mother not to be disappointed by the grade. Bassett called the grade the "average," leading her mother to say she did not have "average kids." As Bassett described, she developed a "sense of pride" and did not get another "C" until college. During high school, Bassett became the first African American in that school to be admitted to the National Honor Society. The Upward Bound program is an academic and cultural enrichment program for underprivileged students. Bassett says she and the other participants did not see themselves as underprivileged.

Career

1980s

After graduation, Bassett worked as a receptionist for a beauty salon and as a photo researcher to support herself while looking for acting work in the New York theater. One of her first New York performances came in 1985 when she appeared in J. E. Franklin's Black Girl at Second Stage Theatre. She appeared in two August Wilson plays at the Yale Repertory Theatre under the direction of her long-time instructor Lloyd Richards; these were Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986). Decades later in 2006, she had the opportunity to work on the Wilson canon again, starring in Fences alongside longtime collaborator Laurence Fishburne at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.

In 1985, Bassett made her first television appearance, as a prostitute in the television film Doubletake. She made her film debut as a news reporter in F/X (1986), for which she was required to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Bassett moved to Los Angeles in 1988 for more acting jobs. She had early guest spots on A Man Called Hawk and 227 (both 1989).

1990s

Bassett earned industry attention and public recognition for her early performances in the films Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). For her portrayal of Betty Shabazz in the latter, she earned an NAACP Image Award. During production, director Spike Lee showed Bassett a tape of the exact moment when Malcolm X was shot, since they would be filming the scene. Bassett called the recording "haunting," but noted that afterward she was "able to grab hold of the pain and re-create the scene." Bassett felt it was important for her to get the assassination scene correct, and wondered how Betty "found the strength to keep going, to raise her family, to educate, to sustain them." Bassett worried that after her role as Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X, she would not find another role "as satisfying." At the time of the film's release, she expressed her worry that she would not have such a role again. "I think I have been incredibly blessed and it is probably just all downhill from here."

Bassett also starred as Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream, which premiered on ABC-TV in the same week as the theatrical release of Malcolm X. After returning to Los Angeles following completion of her work for Malcolm X, Bassett got a call to audition for a film about Tina Turner, based on her memoir I, Tina. Bassett won the lead role over Halle Berry and Robin Givens, but had only one month to prepare before filming began. She met with Turner twice, who advised her on details of her interpretation, from wigs and outfits to dancing styles. Turner also did Bassett's make-up, leading Bassett to call her "supportive" and her "biggest fan." In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Bassett described going to one of Turner's concerts and, after realizing that she knew some of Turner's dance moves, she cried and was "almost a river of tears." Bassett's performance as Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) received strong reviews. Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Bassett "gave the performance of a lifetime" portraying Turner in the biopic. Bassett won a Golden Globe for her portrayal, and was the first African American to win this Award for Best Actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress, but lost to Holly Hunter for The Piano. (Despite the acclaim, Bassett later said in a 2022 interview on Today with Hoda & Jenna, that after portraying Turner, she did not receive acting calls for about a year and a half.)

Bassett starred in three films in 1995, which received varying reviews: Vampire in Brooklyn, Strange Days, and Waiting to Exhale. (For the latter she worked with author Terry McMillan, who had written the book of the same title that was adapted for film.) In Strange Days, Bassett played Lornette "Mace" Mason, a chauffeur and bodyguard. In Vampire in Brooklyn, she played Rita Veder, a tortured cop with a dark secret. She was excited to work with Eddie Murphy in the film, and director Wes Craven. Bassett had previously worked with Craven on television shows. Bassett's character in Waiting to Exhale, Bernadine Harris, is betrayed by her husband. In revenge she sets fire to his entire wardrobe and vehicle, then sells what is left for one dollar. Bassett described the scene and her character in this film to the Orlando Sentinel as follows: "The thing is that my character is thinking about how her husband has left her. I have a cigarette in one hand, and I'm drinking. Basically, the four of us are sitting there talking about men and having some fun."

2000s

In 2000, Bassett turned down the lead role in Monster's Ball because of the script's sexual content. Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the role. The first film Bassett appeared in that year was Supernova, where she played a medical officer. Her other two films released in 2000 were Whispers: An Elephant's Tale and Boesman and Lena, the latter adapted from the play of the same name by South African Athol Fugard. Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that in Boesman and Lena Bassett "abandons her recently cultivated glamorous image to dig to the core of Lena's fierce, probing, contentious, compassionate character." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Bassett captured all of her character's "mercurial mood swings", and both Bassett and her costar Danny Glover "rise to the challenge of these larger-than-life roles, just as you would expect".

She appeared in the 2001 film The Score. Her character was in a relationship with Robert De Niro's. She read the film's script and became interested. She was telephoned by director Frank Oz, who told her Robert De Niro would "like to meet with you". Bassett met with De Niro and later realized the conversation was meant to break the ice before they started filming. In addition to The Score, that year she also had a role in the television film Ruby's Bucket of Blood.

The following year, in 2002, Bassett acted in Sunshine State and The Rosa Parks Story. In The Rosa Parks Story, Bassett was cast as Rosa Parks. Laura Fries of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Bassett "takes her physical strength and turns it inward to portray Parks" and expressed her belief that "lesser hands" would allow for misinterpretation or gross underplay of Parks's personality. In addition to positive reception of her role, Bassett was seen as the "star" of the film due to her performance and earned a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

In 2003, she read from the WPA slave narratives in Unchained Memories. In the 1930s, about 100,000 former enslaved African Americans were still alive. As part of the Federal Writers' Project during the Great Depression, writers interviewed some 2,300, capturing their memories of slavery times. The transcripts of the Slave Narratives collection of the Library of Congress is a record of slavery, bondage and misery. That year she also appeared in the film Masked and Anonymous, playing a mistress. Ann Hornaday noted her as among the "endless parade of actors who show up even for the briefest of appearances".

2010s

In 2010, Bassett lent her voice to portray First Lady Michelle Obama on an episode of The Simpsons titled "Stealing First Base". Bassett was seen as a "terrific" fill in for Obama. Bassett was also cast in the superhero film Green Lantern, released in 2011, as Amanda Waller. Bassett said working on the film was "a lot of fun" and that she enjoyed being a part of it. Despite this, Bassett was taken "out of her element" with the arrangements made that accommodated the computer-generated effects. She called it her first time doing "this kind of movie" but expressed interest in seeing what her scenes looked like.

In 2010, Deadline Hollywood reported that Bassett would have a role in One Police Plaza. In 2011, Bassett co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in the play The Mountaintop a fictionalized depiction of the night before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (Jackson portrays MLK) while at the Lorraine Motel. The critically acclaimed play by Katori Hall originally debuted in London's West End in 2009 and went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. The production opened on Broadway on October 13, 2011. In March 2011, it was reported that Bassett had signed up for a lead role in the ABC pilot Identity.

She also appeared in the 2011 film Jumping the Broom, playing the matriarch of a wealthy family. Bassett had a good feeling about the film from "the start", and believed her character had a "real presence" in the film and felt she was active in the plot. Bassett's and Loretta Devine's performances in the film were called "in some ways too fierce for the room, offering nuances of hostility and hurt that the movie cannot really handle" and contributing to the "unevenness of the performances" in the film. Bassett and Devine were noted as "superb, distinguished actresses" by Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter, but were seen as having been "asked to overdo every moment with permanent scowls and body language more suitable to Mortal Kombat."

Despite this, her performance was given some positive attention, with Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News saying Bassett "makes the movie hers". The film was Bassett's second time working with Devine, as the pair had worked together previously in Waiting to Exhale. Director Salim Akil said Bassett's presence quietly makes a big difference.

Bassett was featured in the 2012 film This Means War, having been known to be attached to the film since two years prior. Tambay A. Obenson of IndieWire attributed Bassett's lack of appearances in promotional material to her having a small role and her demographic not being targeted by the film. Bassett also appeared as herself in I Ain't Scared Of You.

2020s

Bassett provided the voice of Dorothea Williams in the Pixar animated film Soul, which was released on Disney+ on December 25, 2020. She also became narrator of the Magic Kingdom nighttime spectacular Disney Enchantment that premiered on October 1, 2021.

In November 2022, she reprised her role as Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Her performance in the sequel garnered her Best Supporting Actress awards at the 80th Golden Globe Awards—making her the first actor to win a major individual acting award for a film based on Marvel Comics—and at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category, which made her the first person in a Marvel Studios film to be nominated for an Academy Award in any acting category. She then appeared alongside Millie Bobby Brown in the Netflix film Damsel, released in March 2024 to mixed reviews. Bassett also starred as the President of the United States in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, released in May 2025.

Media image

Bassett is widely regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation. Bassett has portrayed real-life African-American women who are usually strong and intelligent. Bassett said in 2001 that she liked those roles and added: "That's the image that I like to put out there, and those are the parts I'm attracted to. But not iron-fist kind of strong, just self-assured. I'm nice too." She has turned down roles which she viewed as demeaning to her image. "This is a career about images. It's celluloid; they last for ever. I'm a black woman from America. My people were slaves in America, and even though we're free on paper and in law, I'm not going to allow you to enslave me on film, in celluloid, for all to see. And to cross the water, to countries where people will never meet people who look like me. So it becomes a bigger thing than me just becoming a movie star, and me just being on TV. So if you're going to show every black woman as 400lb or every black woman as the prostitute on the street ... But I have always maintained that [the roles] I cannot do because of the way I'm made up, or because of the way I think, I don't begrudge that there is someone else who has no issues with that."

In December 2022, Bassett was named as part of The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment Power 100. Time named her among its 2023 honorees for Women of the Year.

Personal life

Bassett married actor Courtney B. Vance in 1997. They first met at Yale School of Drama, then became a couple over a decade later, when their paths crossed again in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2005, they starred together in a production of His Girl Friday at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The couple's twins were carried by a surrogate.

Bassett is a supporter of programs for the arts, especially for youth. She annually attends events for children with diabetes and those in foster homes. She is an active Ambassador of UNICEF for the United States and a member of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ. Bassett is a supporter of the Royal Theater Boys & Girls Club in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida.

She is represented by the Executive Speakers Bureau of Memphis, Tennessee.

In early 2007, Bassett donated $2,300 to the presidential primary campaign of Barack Obama. Bassett supported Obama in his re-election campaign. In June 2012, she made an appearance at the St. Petersburg office of his campaign and said the election was not one "where we can sit on the sidelines".

Bassett attended the second inauguration of Barack Obama on January 21, 2013. She endorsed Hillary Clinton for president during the 2016 United States presidential election, saying "Bar none, Clinton would make a great president." Bassett also spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, introducing survivors of the previous year's Charleston church shooting, an incident about which she spoke during her remarks.

Bassett was initiated as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority on July 13, 2013.

She is a Pentecostal Evangelical Christian and a member of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ (Church of God in Christ), located in Los Angeles.

Awards and nominations

In 2018, she received a Doctorate of Fine Arts (honorary doctorate) from Yale University and a Doctorate of Humane Letters (honorary doctorate) from Old Dominion University in 2022.

Over the course of her career, Bassett has received multiple awards and nominations, including two Golden Globe Awards, an Actor Award (Outstanding Cast for Black Panther), two Critics' Choice Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, nine Emmy Awards and a BAFTA Award. Her Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), marked the first time an actor was Oscar-nominated for a role in a Marvel film.

Bassett was awarded an Academy Honorary Award, also known as an honorary Oscar, at The Governors Awards presentation on January 9, 2024, recognizing her lifetime achievement in the film industry.