In a recent interview with Oprah as part of the “OWN Spotlight” series, Angela Bassett admitted she was “stunned” when she lost the Supporting Actress Oscar last year. Bassett was nominated for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” She had won the Globe Globe and the Critics Choice Award, but the supporting actress race remained somewhat open until Oscar night as Curtis won the SAG Award for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Kerry Condon won the BAFTA for “The Banshees of Inisherin.” » Curtis ended up winning the Oscar.
“I just knew your name was going to be called,” Oprah told Bassett. “I was beside myself (when that wasn’t the case)!” We were beside ourselves.
“I was stunned! I was,” Bassett replied. “I thought I handled the situation very well. That was my intention, to manage this very well. It was of course a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yeah, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.
Bassett said handling the Oscar loss with grace was of the utmost importance “for me and for my children who were there with me.”
“There are going to be moments of disappointment that you experience, but how do you behave in the midst of them? she added. “We're going to smile, we're going to be friendly, we're going to be nice, we're going to party anyway.”
Before “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Bassett had only been nominated for an Oscar once. She competed for the Best Actress award in 1994 for her role as Tina Turner in “What's Love Got to Do With It,” a performance which also earned her a Golden Globe. Holly Hunter won the Oscar that year for “The Piano.” Following her loss in 2023, Bassett was named the recipient of an honorary lifetime achievement award as part of that year's Academy Awards season.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was Bassett's second time playing Queen Ramonda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her Oscar nomination made her the first person to be nominated for an Academy Award for a Marvel film. She told Oprah that she signed on to play the character in the original “Black Panther” film without even seeing the script.
“Some of these places are secret with the scripts, but (director Ryan Coogler) said, 'Queen.' For years, I would say… when people asked me what else you wanted to play, I would say, “I want to play a queen.” I manifested it, obviously,” Bassett said. “Because I hadn’t seen it. It's not queen for me, it's queen for us. We are queens. My mother, my aunt, you. We are all. Very often, black women are considered at the bottom of the totem pole. No!”
Watch Oprah and Bassett's full conversation in the video below.