TIME with ... Angela Bassett

ANGELA BASSETT DOESN’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT herself. She does like to talk about the characters she has played—or, more specifically, inhabited. She swivels her shoulders as she recalls her Oscar-nominated role as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It. “Tina was Beyoncé before Beyoncé,” Bassett says. “Those legs, that power, that sensuality, that undeniable talent.” Then she shrinks her body while maintaining steady eye contact as she transforms into the civil rights icon from The Rosa Parks Story.

Finally she leans back and settles into the couch at a hip Manhattan bar that serves smoke-emitting cocktails in beakers. They’re drinks designed to attract attention, but Bassett doesn’t need a dramatic prop to draw an audience. (She’ll have water, thank you.) Few actors carry themselves with such confidence. She speaks softly