Angela Bassett is admitting just how “disappointed” she was to lose out on the Academy Award for her “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” role at last year’s ceremony.
The “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” star was the expected frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actress category at the 2023 Oscars. Bassett portrayed Queen Ramonda, who appeared in both “Black Panther” films before meeting her fatal end in “Wakanda Forever.”
Bassett reflected on losing the Academy Award to Jamie Lee Curtis for her work in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” during a recent “OWN Spotlight” series interview with Oprah Winfrey, which you can watch in the below video. Bassett’s comments come ahead of the 2024 Academy Awards, airing live on Sunday, March 10 on ABC.
“I was gobsmacked! I was,” Bassett said of her immediate reaction when Curtis’ name was called as the winner. “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.”
Leading up to the Oscars, Bassett won the Globe Globe and Critics Choice Award for her Marvel turn. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” ended up sweeping the core categories at the Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture.
Bassett said she had to stay composed during the Academy Awards “for myself and for my children who were there with me,” adding, “There are going to be these moments of disappointment that you’ll experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them? We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway.”
Bassett was previously up for a Best Actress Oscar in 1994 for playing Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” She later received an Honorary Award for her career as part of the 2024 Oscar season.
The actress told IndieWire that she was similarly surprised to learn that her MCU character of Queen Ramonda was exiting the franchise with “Wakanda Forever.” Bassett appealed to writer/director Ryan Coogler that her onscreen death would make fans “so upset.”
“I was like, ‘Ryan, what are you doing? Why? You will rue the day! You will rue the demise of [Ramonda]. People are going to be so upset,’” Bassett said. “‘He was like, ‘Angela, I know, I know, but look, to die is not really to die in this world. It doesn’t really have to mean that.’”
