During a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, American actress Angela Bassett reflected on the 95th Academy Awards loss. Despite being nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Angela Bassett ultimately lost to Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All at Once. “I was gobsmacked,” Bassett recalled during the March 5 episode of Winfrey’s talk show OWN Spotlight.
“It was—of course—a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human.”
When the winner was announced, the star’s face showed a short expression of displeasure, which viewers noticed. Despite the star’s poise, there was some talk about it on social media. She said, “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well.”
“There are going to be these moments of disappointment that you’ll experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them?” She told Winfrey. “We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway,” she added.
Angela Bassett’s nomination for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda was a major accomplishment, coming nearly thirty years following her first Oscar nomination. She received acclaim in 1993 for her performance as Tina Turner in the biographical film What’s Love Got to Do with It. However, Angela Bassett missed out on the Best Actress Oscar, losing to Holly Hunter, actress of The Piano, during the 1994 awards ceremony.
Bassett played Queen Ramonda for the second time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. With her Oscar nomination, she became the first individual to be nominated for an Academy Award for a Marvel film. She revealed to Oprah that she didn’t even read the screenplay before agreeing to portray the part in the first Black Panther movie.
After the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, fans left the theatre convinced that Angela Bassett’s portrayal of Queen Ramonda had made the most impactful performance. Even yet, Angela Bassett struggled with the choice to end her character’s life. She said that there had been conversations over this decision in an interview with IndieWire, and the filmmaker had assured her that the loss wouldn’t last forever. It is possible that Queen Ramonda may make a cameo in upcoming chapters. Even with this optimistic perspective, Bassett had difficult times in the first several months following the movie’s release since she was very much victimised by her character’s death.
After Bassett won a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award for Wakanda Forever, numerous experts had predicted that she would win an Oscar as well. However, after Curtis triumphed at the SAG Awards, others speculated the Everything Everywhere All at Once actress would win.
Meanwhile, Bassett was honoured with an Academy Award at the Governor’s Awards in January 2024. She gave an inspiring speech at the ceremony to uplift fellow Black performers. Regardless of what they may see, believe or feel, she urged her fellow Black actresses to find confidence and power inside themselves because their “contributions do matter.”
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