Honoring the genius of Angela Bassett
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at 1:00PM 
Angela Bassett did the thing. And yet, that wasn't enough to win her a much-coveted Academy Award. In the moment of losing, her face betrayed a visceral disappointment seldom seen in such a setting nowadays, where fake smiles are de rigueur. Many used that flash of genuine emotion to lambast the actress, while others felt fueled by it in their outrage against AMPAS' choice. I've previously written about Jamie Lee Curtis, defending her work in Everything Everywhere All At Once, but that doesn't mean I didn't mourn Bassett's loss.
As a white Portuguese man, I can't pretend to know what the thespian and her potential victory would have meant for Black audiences, specifically Black women – read Angelica Jade Bastién's Vulture piece for that perspective and a marvelous analysis of the actress' gifts. However, I'm an Angela Bassett fan who thinks she should have an Oscar already, so the potential for a career win for Wakanda Forever felt like justice and her loss like a sting. So, as the month draws to a close and the 95th Academy Awards drift into the past, perhaps into collective closure, let me take you through Angela Bassett's career and my favorite of her big-screen achievements. After all, there's no better way to celebrate an artist than to appreciate their work...
Though I didn't count any TV performances, please know that some of Bassett's most fantastic performances were delivered on the small screen. Indeed, though she's only earned two nominations from AMPAS, the Emmys have honored her with seven nominations, starting with a Best Actress nod for The Rosa Parks Story in 2002. Even before that Julie Dash production, she had a sprawling TV career dating back to the mid-70s. Regarding personal favorites, I'd like to applaud her various characters in American Horror Story with particular admiration for the imperious Marie Laveau and her stint on the ER cast between 2008 and 2009.
Without further ado, let's dive into Angela Bassett's filmography, starting with her third credited movie role, as Reva Styles in…
BOYZ N THE HOOD (1991) John Singleton
The part of the mother is one Angela Bassett has played many times right from the beginning of her tenure on the silver screen. In the seminal classic of 1990s Black cinema, she showcases everything that makes directors keep returning to her as a maternal figure throughout the decades. Like an archeologist, Bassett digs deep into the recesses of the woman's complex personhood and her pride, unearthing histories the text merely hints at while illuminating all the possibilities of what's already on the page.
Whether leaving her son with another caretaker or confronting the boy's father, she's a consummate supporting player, working on the margins of the main narrative to flesh out Singleton's vision and the world depicted wherein. The role is slight, but for such a sublime performer, there are no small parts. We get a sense that, had the camera decided to follow her out of the male-dominated scenes, there's a whole other movie parallel to the one we're watching and just as riveting.
Boyz n the Hood is streaming on Starz.
MALCOLM X (1992) Spike Lee
The supportive wife is such a mainstay of biopic cinema it's hard to imagine anyone making the archetype interesting. And yet, Bassett rises to the challenge in her first collaboration with Spike Lee, breathing life into this interpretation of Betty Shabazz. Though she's always playing second fiddle to Denzel Washington's career-defining turn as Malcolm X, Bassett holds her own and captures the camera's attention, electrifying the screen whenever its gaze falls on her. She's magnetic in a way that threatens to transform the film around her, though never fights against its thesis.
From the first inklings of romance to the shock of widowhood, she traces a vast arc that runs along with the picture's political storytelling. There's tenderness at every step but also a sense of hard-won resilience as the pressures of a violent world bear down on the activist's wife. Of all her supporting turns, this might be the closest to a star-like performance, almost reminding one of those Old Hollywood leading ladies who could shine brightly even when they were secondary to a great man's story.
Malcolm X is streaming on HBO Max and Tubi.
WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT (1993) Brian Gibson
A teen playacts sensual womanhood, negotiating excitement for a man's charged gaze and the thrill of showing off her talents on stage. An accomplished artist stands in front of her audience, and her stony expression betrays the pain ravaging her throat. A single tear, glistening blue in the colored lights, speaks of matters of the exhausted body transcending into heartbreak. Listening to her voice slaying a new tune, a great singer negotiates pride at the achievement with fear of upsetting her husband. A mother tries to hide how terrified she is of her children's father, strained and desperate but also strong in her apparent fragility.
Angela Bassett's performance as Tina Turner has that to offer and a million other wonders, registering, to this day, as the crowning achievement in a career marked by consistent mastery. It's an awesome thing to witness, how much acting there's to parse and yet realize how it never transcends past the limits of 'just right' to fall into the realm of 'too much.' There's discipline to every choice, be it the euphoria of musical work in the recording booth or that famous scene where, bloody and battered, a superstar runs from her abusive spouse and seeks shelter, salvation.
Even in moments of lip-synching, the actress always remembers to illuminate the psychological depth of the woman she's portraying. But that's not all, for so much of this masterclass depends on a sort of expressive physicality that goes beyond mere mimicry. Sure, Bassett convinces as Tina Turner, from youth to middle age, from novice to veteran star. However, she also modulates the more mundane realities inherent to the singer's life story.
It's a titanic achievement full of pondered modulation to match its big gestures, so grand it's easy to understand why many still grumble about her Oscar loss. The sad thing is, had the biopic waited a year for release, that statuette would likely be Bassett's.
What's Love Got to do With It is available to rent and purchase on the major platforms.
STRANGE DAYS (1995) Kathryn Bigelow
Because of all its technical challenges, the scope of the role as written by Kate Lanier, it's fair to say that Tina Turner represents Angela Bassett's best performance. That said, I wouldn't call it my personal favorite. The title belongs, instead, to her Mace in Strange Days, a cyberpunk action thriller that finds Kathryn Bigelow showcasing the maximum musculature of her filmmaking. Bassett is as accomplished as her director, if not more, taking to action cinema as a duck takes to water.
Like in her first Oscar-nominated work, the thespian's physicality is on point, achieving exceptional heights as the story grows in feverish crescendo until it all goes down during its New Year's Eve climax. Still, how she maps Mace's emotional journey is just as impressive as her heroic presence. Playing your leading man's conscience isn't easy. Making that stock role feel profound and politically complicated is even more challenging. On Bassett hinge much of Strange Days' more audacious gambits, its parallels to real life outside the screen.
And to all these challenges, Bassett comes with impressive poise and a movie star's full confidence in her own powers. She makes it look effortless, almost easy. Unfortunately, genre work seldom gets awards recognition, it's true. Still, in my ideal world, Angela Bassett would have become an Oscar winner at the 68th Academy Awards, triumphing in the Best Supporting Actress category.
Strange Days is streaming on HBO Max.
WAITING TO EXHALE (1995) Forest Whitaker
In the same year she dazzled as Mace, Angela Bassett played one of the four leads in Waiting to Exhale, a melodrama focusing on the lives and tribulations of Black Women in contemporary America. Even if you haven't watched it, one image from the movie will ring familiar – it's that glorious vision of feminine vengeance, Bassett looking righteous and full of rage as she sets her cheating husband's car on fire. Maybe no other scene in film history better captures the very concept of fury, though to reduce Bassett's work to just that moment does her a disservice.
Thrown for an emotional tailspin, Bassett is Bernie Harris, who, after finding out her husband plans to leave her for another woman and take their business with him, sets fire to much of his property and sells the rest. Her story is one of overcoming wrath without necessarily looking back in judgment at her first scenes. More than anything, the actress articulates a sentimental education that doubles as the path to happiness. Emotional clarity is always at the forefront, as is an openness to a vulnerability that's not always what one thinks about when reflecting on the star's screen persona.
Still, you know what also does Bassett a disservice? Her movie, for no matter how much her storyline sings, the remaining narratives bring it down, pulling the whole thing into the pits of mediocrity by the weight of formal banality and a confused script. Still, watch it for Angela Bassett – her performance's worth it, and she's worth the world.
Waiting to Exhale is available to rent and purchase on most major services.
HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK (1998) Kevin Rodney Sullivan
All about erotic fulfillment and the entertainment value of watching hot people be hot on screen together, How Stella Got Her Groove Back is a showcase for Angela Bassett at her loosest and most relaxed. Part of that alchemy stems from the script, characterizing the titular Stella as someone who needs to loosen up and gradually learns to let herself enjoy the joys of life. That this process can feel exciting and not incredibly clichéd when you're watching it unfold is a testament to Bassett's ability.
She overcomes whatever limitation the film may have as a piece of cinema, delivering an old-school movie star performance on the purest form such thing could reach in 1990s Hollywood. Moreover, her chemistry with leading man Taye Diggs feels perfectly calibrated, never too breezy nor too easy but constantly pulsing with sensual spark. Whether indulging in the stylings of romcom or navigating a late-film swerve into tear-jerking tragedy, Angela Bassett is in control - of herself and the screen she commands like a celluloid goddess.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back is streaming on Hulu.
BOESMAN & LENA (2000) John Berry
Claudine director John Berry ended his career with this stage adaptation, transposing Athol Fugard's seminal play to the big screen. Though the setting of apartheid-era South Africa is awfully concrete, there's a nearly mythic quality to how the scenery gets translated in cinematic terms. In sprawling widescreen vistas, the world inhabited by the titular characters feels remote in more ways than one, almost as if it existed at a distance from our reality, closer to a paradox of ancient apocalypse. It's like Boesman and Lena's pain has spread into the very fabric of reality.
Such levels of abstraction don't help separate the text from its theatrical origins, but neither Berry nor his actors feel especially interested in severing those ties. Watch Angela Bassett's Lena, and you'll always feel an umbilical cord connecting her to a stagebound past. Her delivery is a loving embrace of artificial speech made to transmit cutting concepts. After all, hers is a lie that speaks the truth, a rhapsody of stylized cadences rhyming with unexpected strikes of naturalistic manner. The performance is a poem written by a body that doesn't just exist on the scene but dances along with some internal force out of the camera's purview.
Even the actress' tendency to sometimes fall into declamatory delivery is weaponized to significant effect, with vocal regality repurposed to represent someone at the end of their rope. Aching in an expression of unimaginable plight, suffering exploded, Bassett is electrifying to watch, even when her fearlessness might make some see grotesquerie when regarding the work. Unfairly forgotten, it's essential viewing for any of the actress' fans.
Boesman & Lena isn't currently streaming on any of the major platforms. However, you can find a shoddy print uploaded on Youtube.
SUNSHINE STATE (2002) John Sayles
One of Angela Bassett's first forays into feature film was John Sayles' City of Hope in 1991. Eleven years later, the two reunited, with the actress playing a much more substantial role this time around. She's Desiree, a beauty queen turned aspiring actress turned disillusioned woman visiting her mother in Deltona Beach, Florida. Having left years ago, when she was still in high school, Desiree relates to everything and everyone with a modicum of trepidation, mayhap doubt, a prickle of cautionary reticence.
And so, much of the actress' work depends on the suggestion of histories left unspoken, writing a lifetime through measured reactions and the faint tension that blossoms between family, friends, past teachers, and old lovers. When recalling the events that made her leave in the first place, Bassett delivers an aria of reminiscence, losing herself in the memories as the scene settles on her face. Disappointment tinges the timbre of her voice, while each gesture is used with a dancer's intent, the most straightforward movement able of telling a whole story on its own.
Sunshine State can be rented and purchased in Apple iTunes, Amazon, Youtube, Google Play, and Vudu.
AKEELAH AND THE BEE (2006) Doug Atchison
From the mid-aughts to today, a good portion of Angela Bassett's big-screen work has been consumed by matriarchal roles. Generally, these parts are not especially complicated, with many a director relying on the actress to add dimensions to her characters. This is visible in various productions, some of which don't deserve Bassett's gift at all. Consider the dignity she brings to Black Christmas, even as her face lets slip a storm of regrets when standing by her husband's side in church. There are the romantic idealizations and resilience of Meet the Browns, the ice queen brittleness of Jumping the Broom, and even the Wakandan queen that earned her a second Oscar nomination.
Out of all these stalwart mothers, I chose to highlight one where Bassett's gift for seeing beyond the obvious is met by a script willing to reveal rather than obstruct that ability. In many ways, the pragmatic single mother of Akeelah Anderson spends most of the narrative as an obstacle standing between her daughter and the young girl's dreams. Yet, regardless if the scene draws her in adversarial or supportive tones, Bassett can continuously modulate her presence so that we're well aware of the internal conflicts whose existence might escape the protagonist's POV.
The performance also lives and dies in her dynamic with Keke Palmer. The older professional shares scenes with the kid under the rule of collaboration, avoiding every pitfall that can occur to veteran actors when working with children. Whether spoken aloud or silent, Bassett is always in active dialogue with her costars, the camera, her audience.
Akeelah and the Bee is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and the Roku Channel.
CHI-RAQ (2015) Spike Lee
Inspired by Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Chi-Raq is the closest Spike Lee has come to directing a musical since the 90s, maybe since School Daze. Even when there are no songs, theatrical stylization abounds, with reticulated language replacing tunes deployed to express what common words cannot. The cast takes to the material with different degrees of comfort, with the best in show being those who embrace their director's bold approach in broad strokes, full of fury and color. Playing a grieving mother set aflame, fueled by outrage, Angela Bassett is a sight to be seen.
In many ways, the actress gets to be the vessel through which Lee exposes the piece's activist intentions, advocating for non-violent protest in a mission against guns. When she's allowed to explode, Bassett can be incandescent. Nevertheless, there's value in observing her dormant strength, the power she yields by merely existing on-screen and shining like a beacon of resoluteness. In a just world, Angela Bassett would have been in the Best Supporting Actress conversation back in 2015, but, as usual, she was overlooked. Maybe things will change in the future – hope is everlasting.
Chi-Raq is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Freevee.
What are your favorite Angela Bassett performances? Please share your top tens in the comments.
Reader Comments (39)
"Many still grumble about her Oscar loss."
Really, do they? If "many" are pining for a world in which Holly Hunter didn't win an Oscar for The Piano, it's news to me, and deeply unfortunate news. That's got to be one of the most respected Best Actress wins of all time, and rightfully so!
Beautiful highlights, Cláudio. Even though you didn't include her TV work, I am glad you at least noted The Rosa Parks Story (and Julie Dash, a sadly underutilized director that Bassett herself sought out for the project), but would also highlight her SAG-nominated work in Ruby's Bucket of Blood and Betty & Coretta as outstanding. I'd argue that, even moreso than even Viola Davis, she really is this generation's Cicely Tyson, always taking parts of elevation and substance and never anything that she'd have to defend years later (even her Ryan Murphy projects have remained, somewhat surprisingly, free of exploitation). And, like with Tyson, TV has given her much more a platform to demonstrate her range, especially in recent years. But in film, also like with Tyson, her meatier parts are in less-seen films. The 1-2-3 punch of Reva-Betty-Tina are really her high water mark, but, in addition to Chi-Raq and the Black Panther movies, her roles since becoming a mother herself are extremely strong as well. Notorious, Jumping the Broom, Black Nativity, Otherhood, and Gunpowder Milkshake were all wonderful projects, but, other than on networks with a specific focus on black artists, I doubt they'll be seen anywhere. And her voice work, from animated movies to her 2 Emmy nominated narrations, are also top notch. I'd also really like to see her show her Yale-trained talents back on the stage, as that's really what spurred Davis on to consistent consideration of her talents and I'd hope the same could be done for Bassett as well.
I long for a comedy in which Angela Bassett and Jamie Lee Curtis play frenemies. With Dominique Jackson as Bassett’s sister.
Honestly she should've won for What's Love Got to Do With it? over Holly Hunter. Not a popular opinion, but there it is. And should've been nominated for Strange Days.
Fun fact: That's her voice saying "right here, right now!" repeatedly on Fatboy Slim's song of the same name, in a dialogue sample from Strange Days.
I believe that Angela Bassett was mistakenly promoted as a candidate for Best Actress for Waiting to Exhale simply because of her previous nod for the Tina Turner bio. While the four women shared equal screen time, the bigger names were labeled Best Actress contenders while the less famous names in Exhale were promoted as supporting. Bassett was subsequently snubbed in all races when she would have easily bested Nepo Baby Mira Sorvino as Best Supporting Actress.
For me the power of Bassett's performance is not the oft cited car fire, but the intensity of the confrontation in the conference room at the family business. When her husband tells her to sell their home to get money to pay bills, the camera pulls in for a tight close up. The rage, the hurt, the indignation is right there. The pain is so real that I will invariably gasp no matter how prepared I am to see it again. When she utters her perfectly delivered response, "I hate you," my heart breaks.
A lovely piece about Miss Bassett.
Here's hoping she gets a good role that deserves the Oscar,I wasn't on the WF train but would have been happy to see her up there as a winner.
1991's supporting actress line up could have included her as it's a bit weak beyond Lewis and Ruehl,she had wonderful chemistry with Cuba and Denzel.
Critics would say 1993's The Piano is probably the better film and Hunter the better performance but i've watched What's love got to do with it more than a few times and it is still the biopic performance which I measure all others and agree I would have handed Bassett the Oscar.
It's not just cheating husbands clothes and cars on fire in WTE but Bassett also,thanks for the trivia Finbar,my favourtie scene is her bar scene with Wesley Snipes but 95 is stacked and this film was a groundbreaker in it's time.
I like her brief leading lady run in the late 90's,I love her final scene in Contact about the static being recorded.
Enjoyed her wounded less forthright showing in Sunshine State,I think she's a Lead but it didn't get the exposure and 2002 was's acting categories we're filled weeks before the nominations.
I have always wondered how her career would have been if she'd have had any of Viola's roles
Waiting to Exhale... the way she walked out of that car after lighting on fire. That's some serious BOSS shit. Plus, the moment she walks into her husband's conference room and BITCH-SLAPS Kelly Preston as if she was a bug. GODDAMN!!!!! If I was her husband and I did that to her... I'd castrate myself.
Strange Days is one of the most underrated films of the 1990s and it still doesn't get enough love. Especially for Bassett's performance as she is just fucking badass. Plus, the fact that she and Ralph Fiennes as a duo fucking worked. On paper, it shouldn't but this is what happens when you have 2 great actors on their A game working together and just fucking hit it off.
I think in a completely different, more equitable universe Bassett could have left the 1990s with at least three Oscar nominations, but our reality is what it is, so there's no use lamenting the past.
I would love to see her tackle a role that totally subverts our expectations of her based on what we know of her talents. Throw her poise through the window in a slapstick comedy, possibly something like a send up of 1980s primetime soaps. Turn her maternalism on its head as a "monster mom" a la Ordinary People or White Oleander. Take that burning rage she harnesses so well even when she explodes and completely release it as an unhinged villain.
For me, her best work is Strange Days. I would have absolutely nominated her for that performance. Every time I watch that movie, I realize I've forgotten how *riveting* she is from the moment she enters the movie. I love the movie anyway, but she gives it that last extra jolt that makes it truly great. I loved her in Chi-Raq as well. She would have been just outside the line-up.
Definitley don't agree with the prevailing narrative that she was robbed first time around. Setting aside the quality of Hunter's work in the Piano (and I think it's one of THE best best actress winners of all time), Hunter was always going to win that Oscar. The movie was a best picture nominee, is objectively a better movie, and Hunter won just about every precourser there was to win.It was hers to lose.
Whereas this year, Bassett probably had a serious shot.
This is great to see. I'll have to see BOESMAN & LENA, as I've never even heard of it.
I really love her performance in Strange Days. She gives that film exactly what it needs and her chemistry with Ralph Fiennes really works.
I also thought she deserved to be in the conversation for Chi-raq. It's a great performance, and it demonstrates just how great she can be in quieter moments.
@Finbar, was she really promoted as a lead for that film? What a strange choice. I can easily see her in the supporting lineup, but Best Actress was tough that year - especially for a film that the industry so overlooked.
Every year some overlooked actress gets her first / comeback nomination and this kind of revaluation happens. Suddenly, they become better than Holly Hunter in The Piano...
C'mon. Some actresses are good, but not great.
If every actor who ever opened his mouth on film deserves an Oscar, what is the point of the Oscars?
JohnFrom I think Bassett is just as good an actress as Hunter.
Ok
Here we go.
Bassett is an excellent actress.
With one previous Oscar nomination, when she obviously couldn't win. ( I'm not a great fan of The Piano, but who can say a single word against Hunter's Oscar)?
Bassett also gave a great performance in the marvelous - and underrated - Strange Days. And the movie was completely ou of Oscar radar, including Fiennes, Lewis and Bigelow.
Bassett isn't overdue.
Close, Adams, Mason, Winger are. Not Bassett.
This said, Jamie Lee Curtis deserved so much more this year.
I lose interest in her when people start bellyaching that she was robbed of an Oscar for her lip singing, too muscular performance WLGTDWI. Had Bassett performed in The Piano, she would’ve also swept every single critic & industry Best Actress award that year. Angela must’ve agreed that HH was an amazing performance to reckon with. She smiled & actually clapped for Holly (unlike her recent sourpuss demeanor).
As an upcoming New York theatre actress, Bassett performed minor roles in the original productions of two August Wilson plays on Broadway, and in the aughts she starred in an LA revival of FENCES alongside Laurence Fishburne. Denzel has committed to producing all ten of the plays in Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, and I would love to see Bassett be given a crack at one of those great roles. Perhaps GEM OF THE OCEAN or KING HEDLEY II, which netted Phylicia Rashad and Leslie Uggams, respectively, Tony nominations for lead actress in their original runs.
but who can say a single word against Hunter's Oscar
Tragically, not Holly Hunter
Oh no, baby. No matter how wonderful Bassett is in What Love…, that Oscar belongs to Holly Hunter. I’ve never met a single person in my life who said it was a wrong choice. Suddenly there’s some kind of a Marvel fever which got these young people hysteric and crazy, trying to rewrite the history based on absolutely nonsense.
Fabio--your comment made me happy. As an Oscar obsessive, I will never stop being sad that Marsha Mason does not have an Academy Award.
Everyone -- I didn't write that Bassett should have won in '93, merely that many people believe so - even before her latest nomination. It's an understandable thing, I would add, for hers is an excellent performance. I'd still probably vote for Hunter out of AMPAS' lineup, but my ultimate winner from that year is actually Juliette Binoche in THREE COLORS: BLUE. I've written about it before, in the Almost There series.
She's totally winning the Honorary Oscar after Alfre Woodard. She doesn't have the movies but that's not her fault, it's the industry that failed her.
(She should have clapped. Not stand -that dress was lot- but at least clapped)
I think if Hunter had won for what was her crowning achievement as an actress, "Broadcast News," the story would have been different for Bassett with "WLGTDWI." Her performance is seared into my brain. But so is Hunter's in "The Piano." But had Hunter already gotten the Oscar for the brilliant news satire, there would have been room to move to someone else, a situation that played out this year with Blanchett, Yeoh.
The other thing that played against her is that her awards speeches played like Rowena's speeches. So I think the academy chose to reward an actress playing against type in a movie they obviously loved. The veteran card didn't hurt.
That being said, Bassett is a queen in my household. She's always regal, always gorgeous, and always in control of her considerable gifts.
Brookesboy,
Thanks. Mason is really overdue - 4 nominations in 8 years, all great performances. Sometimes she's posting nice things on Instagram. 😀
Antônio,
"Suddenly there’s some kind of a Marvel fever which got these young people hysteric and crazy, trying to rewrite the history based on absolutely nonsense."
Perfect words. I couldn't say it better. "Woke" people are trying to rewrite history. As a Historian, I say this is really tragic.
I'm not a huge fan. She's a good actress but not great. I thought her performance in WLGTDWI was way overrated and nowhere near the brilliance of Hunter in The Piano.
Let's not even discuss the joke that was her nomination for Black Panther 2.
And she should've have clapped. Or at the very least not look like JLC was Satan.
If the theme is "It's time to give a Best Actress Oscar to a second black actress" then let's discuss Alfre Woodard. Her performance a few years ago in Clemency could've easily won her one. Such an underrated talent.
Chi-raq was the occasion. It's a real supporting role in a gem movie where Bassett show gentleness, wisdom, comedy, explosions and tears break-up.
But the movie was so anti-american for the Oscars and 3 of the supporting actresses nominated were leading ladies: Vikander, Leigh and Mara. The robbery of it all.
I don’t consider her performance in Malcolm X one of her best, but she’s certainly strong enough in it that she would have been a surefire Supporting Actress nominee had the Academy embraced the film more (I remember Siskel & Ebert called them out over ignoring it aside from the undeniable Denzel performance and suggested that most voters were afraid to watch it).
‘93 was such a great year for movies all around, so her not winning for WLGTDWI can really just be chalked up to overwhelming competition (and that’s not even accounting for not-nominated Juliette Binoche, Tilda Swinton, Michelle Pfeiffer, and others). Had the movie been released a year later I think she would have won in a landslide since the ‘94 Best Actress lineup was shockingly weak (I love Jessica Lange, but that win really sticks out as an odd choice, particularly given she had already won…of the lineup, I’d have given it to Winona that year, but again, it was a weak lineup).
The 1993 Best Actress field was fantastic. Any of the 5 would have been deserving. Stockard Channing and Emma Thompson are excellent, Angela Bassett and Holly Hunter are both on a (slightly) higher level. But my vote would have been for Debra Winger's beautiful performance in Shadowlands.
Finbar -- i dont believe for a second that Bassett would have won in supporting for Waiting to Exhale. People were *obsessed* with Mira Sorvino that year (and the movie was also coming off the 'comeback' of Woody/Oscar love with Bullets Over Broadway) and the industry was not obsessed
I love Angela Basset -- have always loved her. But in my mind she hasn't delivered the #1 performance of the year yet in a specific category. It's frustrating but it happens to a lot of brilliant actors. The cards dont quite align for that Oscar win. That's what Honoraries are for!
Edwin -- absolutely agree that she would have won in 1994 had it been released then. So much of Oscar is about timing. Hell, even if her Wakanda Forever run had come right after another lauded movie turn I think that would have been enough to put her over.
@Edwin - Malcolm X deserved a lot of Oscars. It was that big Hollywood masterpiece that perfectly align with movies as The Last Emperor, Lawrence of Arabia, Amadeus or Gandhi
(but not Bassett for that role)
I would also have voted for Bassett in 1993. She and Hunter are very good, but her performance is a measuring stick by which biopic performances should be judged.
I also think the 2015 Supporting Actress line-up is a disgrace (Winslet was the only actress I would have nominated) - actually I think the 2015 Oscars line-up is pretty close to a disgrace - and Bassett certainly deserved a nomination for Chi-Raq.
1994’s best actress line-up was weak indeed. But to do so AMPAS passed wonders like Linda Fiorentino (disqualified), Jamie Lee Curtis, Isabelle Adjani, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Irene Jacob, and babies Winslet and Lynskey. Probably Bassett would be just another name in the longlist of snubs “if” What Love… was released that year.
@Nathaniel R
I certainly don’t remember the world being *obsessed* with Mira Sorvino. Much of her Oscar publicity was related to her much more famous Broadway actor (That Championship Season), movie character actor (GoodFellas), and TV star (Law and Order) father. The man, appearing in his own Oscar nominated flick Nixon, campaigned hard for his little girl. Nominated for the Woody Allen comedy, Mighty Aphrodite was little seen, having a total box office take of less than $5 million.
Sorvino’s main competition was another ingenue, SAG and BAFTA winner Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility. I recall the outcome being a squeaker between the two.
Even then people felt Angela Bassett deserved recognition for What’s Love Got to Do With It? I think you’re wrong, Mr Rogers. Oscar loves to award a make up prize for an unreasonable loss. Waiting to Exhale, a Christmas release, grossed $80 million at the box office. Male film critics were initially indifferent to the film examining female empowerment, but the voice of women from the box office would have boosted Bassett as a probable winner had she been promoted in the correct category.
She's been great in some things (WLGTDI) but she can be REALLY hammy. Personally she is not one of my favorites, and "genius" is really overstating the case IMO. Hunter is The Piano is maybe my favorite Best Actress win ever, so I can't say I agree with this new narrative that has been forming that Bassett was "robbed" that year (no one here has used that word, but I've seen it used elsewhere). I co-sign the sentiment that it would have been great if WLGTDWI was released a year later, because Lange's win was quite weak and Bassett would have been a more-than-deserving winner that year.
That said, I do love when others are passionate about an actor, even if I'm personally not wild about them, so I'm glad that Bassett has had a career boost recently and I hope it leads to some good work for her.
I am with Sad Man I have only liked her in Tina Turner movie/
Why is anyone surprised by Angela Bassett's bad sportsmanship at Jamie Lee Curtis' win? Doesn't anyone remember that when Halle Barry won, Angela pointed out that she had turned down that role because it was "too trashy" and made sure it was widely broadcasted?
I think that sometimes when an actress like Bassett is so good at a particular kind of role, the future roles we envision for them are kind of more of the same thing.
I read that Bassett and Courtney B. Vance (some years ago) did a modernized version of the play “His Girl Friday” (the movie is the classic with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell). I can see Bassett in Rosalind Russell kind of roles. Charismatic gorgeous take-charge lively romantic drama parts or romantic comedy roles.
It would be nice to see Angela having fun, and using that over the top, sexy authority and devastating line delivery in a well written comedy. And imagine the fun of choosing a romantic acting partner for her who would equal, or match, or complement her skills.
Wow. Some of these comments prove that we truly live in different americas when it comes to Angela Bassett
The problem with Holly Hunter’s Oscar record isn’t that she won for The Piano instead of Broadcast News.
The problem with Holly Hunter’s Oscar record is that she didn’t win for Broadcast News, The Piano AND Thirteen. To me all three of those performances are untouchable in their respective years and all-time material. Very fine actors go their entire careers never getting close to how great Holly Hunter's been—not one but (at least) three times.
Good lord, people sure are defensive / hostile to Ms. Bassett. I'm not going to wade into the 1993 debate except to agree that was a STACKED year.
But happy to see all the love here for Strange Days. Truly one of the best and most underrated films of the '90s, still my favorite of Bigelow's, and what thevoid99 said about her and Fiennes.