Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett
Bassett at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards
Born	Angela Evelyn Bassett (1958-08-16) August 16, 1958 Harlem, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Yale University, Yale School of Drama
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Courtney B. Vance (m. 1997)
Children	2

Angela Evelyn Bassett Vance (born August 16, 1958) is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real-life women, including Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X and Panther, Rosa Parks in The Rosa Parks Story, Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream, and Voletta Wallace in Notorious.

Bassett began her film career in the mid-1980s after graduating from Yale University and its drama school. She did not find any stability in the industry until the 1990s, at which point she appeared in films nearly every year. The 2000s saw a succession of films starring Bassett, with her appearing in at least one film every single year. Bassett's success has continued into the 2010s. Bassett earned nominations for her roles in films such as The Score (2001), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), Meet the Browns (2008) and Jumping the Broom (2011) and won awards for her performances in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) and Music of the Heart (1999) among others.

She had a recurring role from 2013 to 2014 on the FX horror series American Horror Story: Coven, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance as Voodoo queen Template:AHSCharacter. She will return for American Horror Story: Freak Show, the anthology series' fourth season.

Early life

Boca Ciega High School, where Bassett as a teenager was a member of the debate team and student government among other endeavors.

Bassett was born in Harlem, New York on August 16, 1958, the daughter of Betty Jane (Gilbert) and Daniel Benjamin Bassett. Bassett's middle name was given to her in honor of her aunt Evelyn. Bassett's mother lived in New York City with her father's brother and his wife when she met Bassett's father. Daniel Bassett had moved to New York after living in North Carolina, and he moved to Harlem with Bassett's mother after her pregnancy began. 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." Bassett's parents "shipped" her to stay with her father's sister Golden. While her aunt did not have any children of her own, she "loved children, and she was good with them."

After her parents' separation, she relocated from Winston-Salem, North Carolina to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she and her sister D'nette were raised by their social worker/civil servant mother. Bassett did not see her father again for several years, when the two both attended her grandmother's funeral. There, Bassett met his daughter from his first marriage. Jean, who at twelve years old, was several years older than Bassett. After graduating from Jordan Park Elementary School, she began being bussed out of her neighborhood to attend Disston Middle School for seventh grade. The year she began attending was 1970, the first year bussing was implemented to integrate public schools in St. Petersburg. After completing seventh grade, she was bussed to Azalea Middle School for eighth and ninth grade. Bassett's mother became more involved in her daughter's grades and told her and her sister the pair were going to college.

In her younger years, Bassett was "in love" with the Jackson 5 and dreamed of marrying a member of the family group, stating it 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. A straight "A" and "B" student for the most part, Bassett got her first "C" in physical education, and tried to get her mother to not feel disappointment in the grade. Bassett called the grade the "average," leading her mother to say that she did not have "average kids." As Bassett described, a "sense of pride" developed in her and she did not get another "C" until college. During high school, Bassett became the first African-American from Boca Ciega to be admitted to the National Honor Society. She participated in Upward Bound, an academic and cultural enrichment program for underprivileged students. Bassett says she and the other participants did not see themselves as underprivileged.

Bassett attended Yale University and received her B.A. degree in African-American studies in 1980. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama, despite opposition from her father's sister who warned her to not "waste" her "Yale education on theater." She was the only member of Bassett's family to have gone to both college and graduate school. At Yale, Bassett met her future husband Courtney B. Vance, a 1986 graduate of the drama school. Bassett was also classmates with actor Charles S. Dutton. After graduation, Bassett worked as a receptionist for a beauty salon and as a photo researcher. Bassett soon looked 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. The Wilson plays featuring Bassett were Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1986). 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.

Career

Early work

In 1985, Bassett made her first television appearance as a prostitute in the TV movie Doubletake. However, she made her official 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, California in 1988 for more acting jobs and gained recognition in the films Boyz n the Hood (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). For her portrayal of Betty Shabazz, she earned an Image Award. Despite the award, the movie was not entirely given positive reception, being referred to by critics as failing to "capture" the rage of Malcolm X's autobiography. During production of Malcolm X, Spike Lee showed Bassett a tape of the exact moment when Malcolm X was shot during his assassination, since they would be filming the scene. Bassett called the recording "haunting", but noted that after listening, 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." Malcolm X was released on November 18, 1992.

1990s

In 1992, Bassett played Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream. Bassett's agents tried to discourage her from playing the role, given the negative reception that Michael Jackson had. She admitted to not caring about the negative view of members of the Jackson family at the time, citing her childhood fondness of the group as an example of her passion for the project and believed her "instinct" about the role had been correct once learning of the positive reviews the miniseries received after airing.

Later that year, Bassett was cast as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). Bassett returned to Los Angeles after Malcolm X filming was completed, and got a call for an audition for a movie based on I, Tina, Tina Turner's memoir. Bassett won a Golden Globe and earned an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Turner. She was the first African-American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Bassett obtained the role after beating Halle Berry and Robin Givens, but only had a month to prepare before shooting. She met Tina Turner twice, and was given advice by the woman she would be portraying 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 regards to Turner as a person, Bassett said "Why? People keep asking me why Tina took it for so long? There are limits for her, for me, for everybody. One week was my mother's limit. It was her second husband. The man was nice and docile for four years of courtship. She got married to him on a Sunday. The following Saturday he raised his hand and fractured her nose. The next day the marriage was annulled. That was it. That's my example. So my limit is nil. For Tina, the limit was much longer."

Bassett starred in three movies in 1995, which were released with varied reactions from critics: Vampire in Brooklyn, Strange Days, and Waiting to Exhale (where she worked with author Terry McMillan). 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 Vampire in Brooklyn, as well as Wes Craven. Bassett had previously worked with Craven on television shows. Bassett's character in Waiting to Exhale, Bernadine Harris, was betrayed by her husband and in revenge she set fire to his entire wardrobe and vehicle, then sold what was left for one dollar. Bassett described the then-recently filmed party scene and her character in Waiting to Exhale to the Orlando Sentinel. Bassett said, "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." Bassett described to the Orlando Sentinel going to one of Turner's concerts and crying profusely. According to Bassett, upon realizing that she knew some of Turner's dance moves, she was "almost a river of tears."

In 1998, Fatboy Slim sampled Bassett's voice from 1995's Strange Days, specifically the line "this is your life, right here, right now!", for his hit single Right Here, Right Now. Also in 1998, Bassett starred in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, once again collaborating with McMillan. She played Stella, a 40-year-old American professional woman who falls in love with a 20-year-old Jamaican man. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Bassett's character "the best thing in the movie" and wrote that Bassett "portrays this high-strung superwoman with such intensity that she makes her almost believable." In 1999, Bassett starred in Music of the Heart, once collaborating with the horror icon Wes Craven.

2000s

In 2000, Bassett turned down the lead role in Monster's Ball because of the script's sexual content; the role earned Halle Berry the Academy Award for Best Actress. Bassett appeared in three films in 2000; Supernova, Whispers: An Elephant's Tale and Boesman and Lena.

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 then 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 2003, she read from the WPA slave narratives in Unchained Memories. In the 1930s, about 100,000 former slaves were still living during the Great Depression, of which 2,300 were interviewed part of the Federal Writers' Project. The transcripts of the Slave Narratives collection of the Library of Congress is a record of slavery, bondage and misery. In the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee, Bassett portrayed Tanya Anderson, the mother of the film's lead, Akeelah, played by Keke Palmer. Bassett said she loved the story and described working with Palmer as being "really wonderful." According to Bassett, the two bonded and that Palmer was as good an actress as any adult she had worked with. Bassett provided her voice for the 2007 film Meet the Robinsons.

She appeared in the 2008 film Gospel Hill. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote Bassett's "fiery self-possession brings a spark of passion to her stick-figure character". She next appeared in Of Boys and Men, portraying Rieta Cole, the matriarch of a Chicago family who is killed in an accident in the beginning of the film and is seen through flashbacks for the remainder of the film. She and her costars Robert Townsend and Victoria Rowell were seen by Robert Gillard of LA Sentinel as doing wonderful jobs of "capturing the emotions of a family stricken by grief." Bassett joined the regular cast of ER for the show's final season (2008–2009). She portrayed Dr. Catherine Banfield, an exacting Chief of the ER who was also working to recover from the death of a son and to bring another child into her family. Bassett's husband Courtney Vance played her television husband on ER as Russell Banfield. As well, Angela appeared in a family movie called "of Boys and Men" in 2008. She co-starred alongside Robert Townsend, who played her husband in this movie.

In the film Notorious, Bassett portrayed Voletta Wallace, the mother of The Notorious B.I.G.. To portray Wallace's Jamaican accent, Bassett conversed with her on and off the film set, and she practiced her accent using tapes that Wallace made. She was announced to portray Wallace in the film in April 2008, less than a month after Bassett was honored with the 2,358th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. Bassett said she jumped at the chance to be part of the film after reading the script. She felt it did a "wonderful job of bringing" The Notorious B.I.G.'s "life to the page." Bassett earned good reviews for her performance in the film, noted as being one of the more experienced actors involved and in January 2009, she attended the red carpet premiere of Notorious right after she expressed her admiration for Voletta Wallace over the phone to The Los Angeles Times.

2010s

In 2010, Bassett lent her voice to portray First Lady Michelle Obama on an episode of The Simpsons entitled "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 notable DC Comics character 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.com 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 Dr. Martin Luther King (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 Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Play. The production opened on Broadway on October 13, 2011.

She also appeared in the 2011 film Jumping the Broom and her 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 Levine 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 Loretta Devine, as the pair had worked together previously in Waiting to Exhale. Bassett had a good feeling about the film from "the start." Bassett believed her character had a "real presence" in the film and felt she was active in the plot. Director Salim Akil said Bassett's presence quietly makes a big difference. She was featured in the film This Means War. While it was released in 2012, Bassett was known to have been attached to the film as early as 2010. Bassett also appeared as herself in I Ain't Scared Of You.

Bassett portrayed Coretta Scott King in the television film Betty and Coretta, which aired on February 2, 2013, continuing her trend of portraying real women. Bassett was surprised to learn after researching that Coretta initially refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "advances" and called Mrs. King a "modern day iconic heroine." While being asked about what drew her to play real-life women, Bassett answered "The respect that I have for their lives—their stories, vulnerabilities, strength, and resolve." Bassett's involvement in the film was reported as early as August 2012. Production began in September of that year. Mary J. Blige, when asked about what kind of experience it was to work with Bassett, said that she was "one of Angela's biggest fans" while calling her an "amazing woman." The film received mix reviews, including negative reactions from Ilyasah Shabazz and Bernice King, the daughters of Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King.

Bassett recently appeared as Secret Service director Lynne Jacobs in the action thriller Olympus Has Fallen, released in March 22, 2013. Bassett was reported to have a role in the film in June 2012, the month before filming began. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Bassett noted that there had "never been a female head of the Secret Service, much less a woman of color". She called the decision to have a female African-American Secret Service director "a bold casting choice". Overall, Bassett viewed the film as authentic. Bassett described working with Morgan Freeman as wonderful, but she admitted to being intimidated by him. She was impressed with the preparation of director Antoine Fuqua, who she said "was just preparation to the hilt" and expressed her interest in working with him again. She appeared in the 2013 film Black Nativity. She sung and it was seen as contributing to the film's "blissful unreality". She was asked by the film's director, Kasi Lemmons, if she could sing and Bassett admitted to lying to get the role. She joked to reporter Jennifer H. Cunningham, "Yes, I can sing — you didn’t ask how well!" Singing in a film was a new experience for Bassett, who had never had to sing before and had always lip-synced.

Bassett currently appears on FX TV show American Horror Story: Coven as Template:AHSCharacter, a voodoo witch. Bassett praised the writers, calling them "amazing". Her agent approached Ryan Murphy about her having a role in the series and he told the agent that she was the person he had in mind for Marie Laveau. Bassett watched the previous seasons of the series before meeting with Murphy and found the writing "wonderful" and the characters "so realized".

It was announced in May 2014 that Bassett would make her directorial debut with a film based on the life of Whitney Houston, who Bassett had worked with previously. Bassett had previously expressed interest in directing the year before. It was announced in early June 2014 that Yaya DaCosta would play Houston in the film. Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, insulted Bassett on Twitter for not casting her as her mother in the film, to which Bassett admitted in an interview that she had never thought about casting Brown. On June 11, 2014, Ruby Dee died from natural causes. Bassett had previously worked with her on Betty and Coretta and was reported to attend the Riverside Church memorial for Dee on September 20, 2014.

Personal life

Bassett with her husband, Courtney B. Vance, March 1, 2007

Bassett married actor Courtney B. Vance in 1997. 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 children – son Slater Josiah and daughter Bronwyn Golden - were born on January 27, 2006. For the first ten years of marriage, Bassett and Vance lived in a home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms with "features" such as a gourmet kitchen, a master-bedroom suite and a hair salon among others. A year after the children's birth, Bassett and Vance placed their home for sale. The couple chose to list their home for sale because most of their neighbors had children that attended private schools, and they wanted theirs to attend public schools when they grew up.

Bassett is a Christian.

Bassett is an avid 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 USA. Bassett is a big supporter of the Royal Theater Boys & Girls Club in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. The Club is one of the first all performing arts Boys & Girls Clubs in the country.

She is represented by the Executive Speakers Bureau of Memphis.

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

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1986	F/X	TV Reporter
1986	Liberty	Linda Thornton	Television movie
1988	Doubletake	Prostitute at Headquarters	Television movie
1990	Kindergarten Cop	Stewardess
1990	Family of Spies	Bev Andress	Television movie
1990	Challenger	Cheryl McNair	Television movie
1990	In the Best Interest of the Child	Lori	Television movie
1990	Perry Mason: In the Case of the Silenced Singer	Carla Peters	Television movie
1991	Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story	Pat	Television movie
1991	Critters 4	Fran
1991	Boyz n the Hood	Reva Devereaux
1991	The Heroes of Desert Storm	Lt. Phoebe Jeter	Television movie
1991	Locked Up: A Mother's Rage	Willie	Television movie
1991	One Special Victory	Lois	Television movie
1991	City of Hope	Reesha
1991	Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor	Allison	Television movie
1992	Passion Fish	Dawn/Rhonda
1992	Innocent Blood	U.S. Attorney Sinclair
1992	The Jacksons: An American Dream	Katherine Jackson	Television movie
1992	Malcolm X	Betty Shabazz
1993	What's Love Got to Do with It	Anna Mae Bullock/Tina Turner
1995	Vampire in Brooklyn	Det. Rita Veder
1995	Panther	Betty Shabazz
1995	Strange Days	Lornette 'Mace' Mason
1995	Waiting to Exhale	Bernadine 'Bernie' Harris
1997	Contact	Rachel Constantine
1998	How Stella Got Her Groove Back	Stella
1999	Our Friend, Martin	Miles' Mom	Voice role
1999	Music of the Heart	Principal Janet Williams
2000	Supernova	Dr. Kaela Evers
2000	Whispers: An Elephant's Tale	Groove	Voice role
2000	Boesman and Lena	Lena
2001	The Score	Diane
2001	Ruby's Bucket of Blood	Ruby Delacroix	Television movie
2002	Sunshine State	Desiree Stokes Perry
2002	The Rosa Parks Story	Rosa Parks	Television movie
2003	Unchained Memories	Reader
2003	Masked and Anonymous	Mistress
2004	The Lazarus Child	Dr. Elizabeth Chase
2004	Mr. 3000	Maureen 'Mo' Simmons
2005	Mr. & Mrs. Smith	Mr. Smith's Boss	Uncredited voice role
2006	Akeelah and the Bee	Tanya Anderson
2006	Time Bomb	Jill Greco	Television movie
2007	Meet the Robinsons	Mildred	Voice role
2008	Gospel Hill	Sarah Malcolm
2008	Of Boys and Men	Rieta Cole
2008	Meet the Browns	Brenda Brown
2008	Nothing But the Truth	Bonnie Benjamin
2009	Notorious	Voletta Wallace
2011	Jumping the Broom	Mrs. Watson
2011	Green Lantern	Amanda Waller
2012	This Means War	Collins
2012	I Ain't Scared Of You	Herself
2013	Betty & Coretta	Coretta Scott King	Television movie
2013	Olympus Has Fallen	Lynne Jacobs
2013	Black Nativity	Aretha Cobbs
2015	London Has Fallen	Lynne Jacobs	Pre-production

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1985	Spenser: For Hire	Joe's Daughter	Episode: "The Choice"
1985	The Cosby Show	Mrs. Mitchell	Episode: "Mr. Quiet"
1987	Ryan's Hope	Leonie Peach	Unknown episodes
1988	The Cosby Show	Sari	Episode: "Bookworm"
1989	A Man Called Hawk	Bailey Webster	3 episodes
1989	Tour of Duty	Lt. Camilla Patterson	2 episodes
1989	227	Amy Burnett	Episode: "A Pampered Tale"
1989	Thirtysomething	Kate Harriton	Episode: "Legacy"
1990	Alien Nation	Renee Longstreet	Episode: "Eyewitness News"
1990	Equal Justice	Janet Fields	Episode: "Goodbye, Judge Green"
1991	The Flash	Linda Lake	Episode: "Beat the Clock"
1991	Stat	Dr. Willie Burns	Episode: "Ladyfinger"
1992	Nightmare Cafe	Evelyn	Episode: "Sanctuary for a Child"
1995	Get Smart	Uncredited role as Runway Model	Episode: "Pilot"
2003	Freedom: A History of Us	Sheyann Webb	Episode: "Marching to Freedom Land"
2003	Freedom: A History of Us	Melba Pattillo	Episode: "Let Freedom Ring"
2003	The Bernie Mac Show	Herself	Episode: "Laughing Matters"
2005	Alias	CIA Director Hayden Chase	4 episodes
2008–09	ER	Dr. Cate Banfield	16 episodes
2010	The Simpsons	First Lady Michelle Obama	Episode: "Stealing First Base"
2013–present	American Horror Story	Template:AHSCharacter	Coven: 12 episodes
		Desiree Dupree	Freak Show: TBD

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Angela Bassett

References

Works cited

• Bassett, Angela; Courtney B. Vance (2009). Friends: A Love Story. Kimani Press Single Title.

External links

• Angela Bassett at IMDb
• Angela Bassett at the Internet Broadway Database
• Angela Bassett at AllMovie