*Angela Bassett spoke about her illustrious career on Feb. 9 at the Santa Barbara International Film (SBIFF) in Santa Barbara, Calif.
“Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler presented Bassett with the festival’s Montecito Award for her contributions to cinema. As Urban Hollywood reports, during the Q&A portion of the event, Bassett discussed some of her favorite movie roles, including “Boyz n the Hood,” “Waiting to Exhale,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” and 2000’s South African drama “Boesman and Lena.”
Bassett recalled “Boyz n the Hood” writer-director John Singleton being the catalyst she needed at the time to break being “pigeonholed” as a TV actress.
“He was 19. He was young. I remember going to Leimert Park, down in the [South Los Angeles] neighborhood and sitting with him. He was just wonderful, he was really kind,” Bassett said. “It was a role that was loosely based on his mother. He told me he liked the way my mouth sort of curled in a growl.”
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Bassett later touched on her role in “Waiting to Exhale,” and how she knew the film was going to be a success because Black women loved the book it was based on by Terry McMillian.
“I knew when I lived in New York, I saw everyone on the subway, on the A Train reading that book. So I thought, ‘This is going to be successful,’ because it already had an incredible audience,” she explained, noting that “we had never seen characters on film like this … four strong Black women, compelling, interesting, loving, hopeful, in various situations.”
“Waiting to Exhale” was directed by Forest Whitaker and earned $81 million at the worldwide box office.
By the time Basset got the call for “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” the movie star had the power to choose her love interest.
“I felt pretty successful at that time. I even got to weigh in on who I wanted to be my Winston Shakespeare,” Bassett said. “There were screen tests for the men and then I got to pick which one, ‘and [I considered] who would the ladies like?’ Here we have this trained one with a British accent, but no. He’s the muscles, so we landed on Taye [Diggs].”
For her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Coogler said told the audience he physically pushed Bassett to her limit.
“I had to ask a lot of her. This time she was going to have to get into the water, well beyond her depths where she felt comfortable,” Coogler said. “She was going to have to do her own stunt work. She was going to have to be a queen, and a head of state, and a grieving mother.”
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