For Angela Bassett, Her Career Has Always Been About “The Work, Not The Fame”
Angela Bassett has been a humble giant for years, dominating versatile roles such as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It, a mid-aged hot catch in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, to a fire-starting Bernadine in Waiting To Exhale — and everything else in between.
The three-degree slanging mother of twins and wife to the incomparable Courtney B. Vance has always been deserving of the most prestigious accolades, even prior to her 2024 honorary Oscar. And for years, fans have had tongue-in-cheeks moments over perceived snubs made by the Academy when we knew Bassett deserved something.
However for the 65-year-old impresario, her true honor has always been about “the work, not the fame.” In an interview with PEOPLE for its 2024 Women Changing the World issue, Bassett and her husband spoke on her humble journey to receiving the well-deserved fruits of her labor and her motherhood.
“I’ve always been a hard worker,” she told the outlet with Vance revealing that she’s also “very shy” about gloating in her accomplishments. “She’ll never toot her own horn,” he added. “The honorary Oscar was a wonderful night, but I flashed back to 30 years ago when they didn’t call her name, and then when they didn’t call her name last March. This was an opportunity for her to stand up there. A lot of people saw it, but not the billion people that would see it at the Oscars. But it meant everything to her.”
Last month, Bassett took home the feat only after being nominated twice throughout her illustrious 40-year career. As many fans felt anger and even betrayal for Bassett’s long overdue honor, for her, the focus has remained on modeling grace and gratitude for her 18-year-old twins — who she simply just wants to make home cooked meals for and be “mom” to.
“One of the things that always that I say to myself and to my kids is, ‘Find the good and praise it,'” she said. “But also I hope that what will come out of that is that they see a mama, a woman, a Black woman achieving her dreams, having success. They’ll see that hard work pays off. And they’ll be about that life for themselves.”
Bassett’s vast filmography speaks to the passion that fans feel over her winning what she deserves. She’s executive produced the hit TV series 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star and has a brand new fantasy film Damsel hitting Netflix on March 8. Nowadays, Bassett admits to only accepting roles and projects that she feels good about.
“You have to know what to say no to as well as what to say yes to,” she said. “And during this time, a lot of things have been worthy of me saying yes to.”
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