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- 15 hours ago
Angela Bassett revisits some of her most memorable scenes from her legendary career. From What's Love Got to Do with It and Black Panther, to American Horror Story, and beyond, Angela breaks down the performances and moments that have defined her career. Watch as she shares behind-the-scenes stories, reflects on bringing iconic characters to life, and looks back at some of her most unforgettable roles.
All episodes of FX’s American Horror Story: Coven on Hulu are streaming now on Hulu, and catch new episodes of American Horror Story: 13 on FX and Hulu.
All episodes of FX’s American Horror Story: Coven on Hulu are streaming now on Hulu, and catch new episodes of American Horror Story: 13 on FX and Hulu.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I tell you, that's good light, but that fire was hot.
00:05I was trying to look cool.
00:08Hi, I'm Angela Bassett, and today I'm going to be re-watching some scenes from throughout my career.
00:30Mokoye, you will be stripped of your rank as General of Wakanda's armies and your status as Dora Milaje.
00:39Looking back at that scene, just enormous pride, great deal of love for that project, for Ryan Coogler, and the
00:49world that he built on screen, you know, and on the set.
00:54I've never been on a set where we had hundreds of extras standing, waiting, I mean, just in regalia that's
01:04so beautiful.
01:05The drummers would just drum intermittently, and you know, there's a lot of waiting on movie sets, but it was
01:11not loud, there was music, the drummers just spontaneous.
01:15It was just glorious, glorious from top to bottom, wall to wall.
01:19This particular scene, we're in the throne room, you don't sit upon a throne every day, and how does that
01:26feel?
01:27How do you carry yourself?
01:28What's the posture like?
01:30So that was just even to that specificity, thought about it, how you hold yourself.
01:36Of course, this monologue was the scene, and the monologue within it was very important.
01:42So working with a dialect coach, rolling those R's, and sometimes there's two R's in a word next to another
01:48R.
01:48So, you know, I'm trying to do that with ease.
01:52I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and my entire family is gone.
02:01Have I not given everything?
02:04What she's talking about, talking about family, and losing her family, and just thinking of womanhood,
02:13and what we give to our communities, and to our families, and to our friends.
02:18It was just rich, so it would come up in me emotionally, and then, you know, and yet you don't
02:24want it to go, you know,
02:26let the horses run out of the yard.
02:29You know, they have to be contained so that it makes sense, and the audiences connect and feel it.
02:35And that was my, my biggest dream and hope.
02:54I tell you, that's good light, but that fire was hot.
03:00I was trying to look cool.
03:02It is a meme and everything, you know.
03:06But that was all Betty Bassett.
03:07That's my mama.
03:08That's all Betty Bassett attitude.
03:10Because she would say when I was growing up, if you were misbehaving, she would say,
03:14I'll fix your little red wagon.
03:17So, you know, I had the little red wagon in the scene, so I couldn't help but think of her.
03:21There was only one car.
03:23That's the only car, and the magic of cinema, they have these, you know, these rods that they can raise
03:29the flames
03:30and lower the flames and that sort of thing.
03:33But we got all the shooting of putting all his stuff in the back or whatever,
03:37and then once I got to, you know, with the lighter fluid, it was just up and down, you know,
03:43up and down a couple times.
03:44I wasn't trying to find comedy at all, I don't think.
03:48I was just trying to, you know, I had a little fun, you know, a little fun, a little bit
03:53of improv in there, you know.
03:55How was the background of your foreground, you know, whatever letting you, you know, supporting you, so that sort of
04:02thing.
04:03So I was like, hmm, that's a cute little way of putting it, you know.
04:06You sort of get the gist of the relationship of what she's been, you know.
04:11I should have left you and just stomping through the house in your lingerie and with a child's wagon.
04:16So I guess all that sort of added to it, you know.
04:20And then the spectacle of just burn up all your stuff.
04:23Sell it first, sell what you can for a dollar, and then burn up the rest that didn't sell.
04:28That just felt so cathartic to me, something I wouldn't have the nerve to do in real life.
04:34Although I did read that some young lady did attempt to do that,
04:37and she was promptly reprimanded by the law.
04:43I was like, oh, no, it's just a movie, honey.
04:51What's your secret?
04:52What's yours?
04:53Your manicure costs more than my rent.
04:56A woman like you wipes her ass with diamonds.
04:58She don't just end up walking in here for hair extensions.
05:02My, my, my.
05:04Aren't you perceptive?
05:06You know exactly who I am and what I'm capable of,
05:09just like I know exactly what you are.
05:12Witch.
05:12I can smell the stink of it on you.
05:15You show up on day one of shooting.
05:18You show up to the set.
05:19You haven't seen it before.
05:20But you take the place in, and she's there in the neighborhood, in the Treme,
05:26with her, you know, regular folk working for.
05:28They're from the community.
05:29I swear my jumpsuit in that scene literally was $17 from one of the stores there.
05:37But it was perfect for Marie and for me at the time.
05:41Marie is fierce.
05:43She's complex.
05:44She's a lover of her community, of her people.
05:48She has an, you know, ancestral urge to protect her, her people and her community.
05:54She's not evil voodoo to live in New Orleans, which is where we shot it,
06:01to get to listen to the local lore about her, to go to St. Anne Street and see her house
06:10and stand in front of her front door and her stairs, which is right up the street from the park,
06:16you know, Armstrong Park, where she would, from Congo Square, where she would hold interracial services.
06:22I mean, this real Marie was 18, 1801, so the 19th century, and her mystique still resonates in that city
06:33today.
06:34Jessica, I, Kathy, Pates, we just show up and get going and really play off of each other, react in
06:43a playful way.
06:44And in this world, literally, more was more.
06:49You know, a lot of times they say less is more.
06:51More, no, no, no, more is more.
06:53Boys!
06:54Sorry.
06:55I'm going to grab town.
06:57Hurry, get up!
06:58Put it out!
06:59Stop!
07:03I don't like it.
07:06But we'll be in touch.
07:08That's what made it so exhilarating of a character for me.
07:19I'm Tina Turner.
07:22My husband and I just had a fight.
07:25I'm supposed to open at the academy tonight.
07:29I have 36 cents and a mobile card.
07:32Buy and a mobile card.
07:33But if you would give me money, I swear, I will pay you back.
07:39Oh, this whole sequence of this whole moment in the film was just incredible.
07:46You know, this gorgeous white suit and the leopard underling.
07:50You know, I did, I have to tell you, did have a stunt double.
07:54She was wonderful.
07:55And she was with me on a couple movies.
07:58And unfortunately, on one of the movies that I did, she lost her life in the service of a stunt.
08:06But so that was, but so to see her again, you know, and to love her.
08:11But I remember we would sit in the trailer, in the makeup trailer, and we would talk about, you know,
08:18just work and faith and family.
08:20And it was really quite, quite beautiful.
08:23She was a great me.
08:25It was a great her.
08:26But that sequence, especially just before it took, was around the last day of shooting, this intense shooting period, 26
08:36hours straight of working.
08:38I've never done that before nor since.
08:40I remember running down the path, the pathway there, twice.
08:45And I gave it my all.
08:48I said, okay, because this is hard.
08:51Well, I was younger then, though.
08:53But this is hard.
08:54The first time, let's see, I'm going to run being a person of faith.
08:59I'm running to the Lord.
09:02Oh, my God.
09:03I'm going to give it my all.
09:04I got to get there.
09:05The next time I did it, I'm running from evil.
09:09I'm the devil.
09:10So I'm really trying to.
09:11So both situations, you know, motivated me to run like, you know, run like heck.
09:20Tina, amazing.
09:21Turner.
09:21Turner, I think what I realized first, I had to think about, hmm, so I wouldn't be so intimidated or
09:28overwhelmed.
09:29What we had in common.
09:30You know, she was a little country girl from Nutbush, Tennessee.
09:34I was a little country girl from St. Petersburg, Florida.
09:36We both had dreams to get up, you know, out of the neighborhood, off the block as entertainers.
09:42So we had some stuff.
09:44She loved to laugh.
09:45I loved to laugh.
09:46She's infectious.
09:48She's engaging.
09:49She's all those things.
09:50But she's really grounded, scrappy.
09:53She worked hard.
09:54She did all hair and the makeup.
09:56Of course, they were on the chitling circuit then.
09:58They were, you know, they all had to do their own thing.
10:00The last day, last week of shooting, she came to my trailer.
10:03She kicked everybody out.
10:05Whereas they would take an hour to do my makeup or something, she whipped me together in 10 minutes.
10:10Of course, they're knocking, do you need anything in it?
10:12She was like, no, just stop, stop.
10:14You didn't have to cater to her, baby her, you know, set her, you know, on a pillow.
10:19She was there to get the work done.
10:21She brought me costumes from out of her, you know, personal storage.
10:25She went shopping for me.
10:27It was when I could have been queen when she, you know, bought me shoes or the shirt.
10:32I think this is great for the character or for the scene.
10:35She would call me, how are you, Angela?
10:37Make sure I was okay, you know, mentally.
10:39This wasn't entertainment for her because it was her life.
10:43And as we know, it's pretty difficult.
10:45But she was incredibly supportive of me and making sure that I was good.
10:52And she would always just say, you're perfect.
10:54You're perfect.
10:55Do you tilt your head this way?
10:56And you're perfect.
10:58You're like, surely a tilt in my head cannot make me exact.
11:02But she made me believe that and gave me that confidence.
11:06And for that, you know, you got to be grateful and bless her heart.
11:11She worked incredibly hard.
11:12And this project was by far the most difficult piece emotionally, physically, spiritually that I've ever attempted.
11:23And I'm fond of saying there's life before love and there's life after what's love.
11:30You know, they're different.
11:31But love, love is hard.
11:34But love is worth it.
11:43Baines is the one who saved my life.
11:46When I was in prison crawling around like an animal, he's the one that brought me to the Honorable Elijah
11:52Muhammad.
11:52And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad brought me back from the people.
11:55A long time ago you were paid.
11:57Don't you raise your voice in my house.
12:00Raising voices, are we?
12:04Well, that's staying in the moment.
12:06We're actually fighting.
12:07Staying in the moment so that you feel that.
12:09Even from the audition with Denzel, who was in the audition with me and others.
12:15And I remember just going back that, you know, Spike had come along with She's Gotta Have and saw that
12:20in New York.
12:21Ooh, now you want to work with this filmmaker.
12:23He doesn't want to work with anyone in New York anymore.
12:25So he goes to California and does a movie casting those.
12:29But I'm in California.
12:30Then I go to California.
12:31Then he comes back.
12:31He doesn't want to work with L.A. actors.
12:33By the time he got to Malcolm X, maybe about his fourth film, he'll cast whomever from wherever.
12:38But I remember getting the script, sleeping in my Malcolm X t-shirt, putting the – somehow I got the
12:44script surreptitiously.
12:47I would put it under my mattress at night thinking, hoping that by osmosis I was – the character of
12:55Betty was coming to me and I could embody her going into the audition and improv-ing with him a
13:01little there.
13:02He really is one for improv-ing and going off the book.
13:05So you got to remain cool, calm, and collective.
13:09Stay connected.
13:10And I think there's a – you know, there's a kinetic energy in the scene.
13:13So you can imagine that a lot of that wasn't actually scripted.
13:18Baines, Baines, no screaming in my house, you know.
13:22So on both of our parts.
13:24Because I was fearless then and he was, you know, as towering as he always has been.
13:31Denzel and myself both come from the theater.
13:34So we're used to beginning, middle, and end.
13:37And once you say go, go until it's curtain call.
13:42So it wasn't very difficult.
13:44The house was very small out in Queens somewhere.
13:47It was very cold, New York winter.
13:50The house was tiny, so you felt sort of the claustrophobic nature of it.
13:54And Malcolm just sacrificed so much to, you know, to the nation, to the neglect of himself and his family.
14:01It just built up the claustrophobic nature, Denzel's intensity, and my just out of drama school.
14:09Let's get with it, you know.
14:11Nice to meet you now.
14:13Let's spar.
14:14Maybe Betty was in Africa later.
14:17But early on, I think I did have one brief conversation with her.
14:22I think I vaguely remember her saying, oh, I only slept in silk.
14:26I was like, hmm.
14:29And then I remember thinking, history as we recall it.
14:33You know, we have, as I'm sitting here recalling my own, you know, history as we recall it.
14:39It can be different from it as it's perceived by others or through the eyes of others.
14:43So I really wanted to get a more objective feel about what her life was and who she was at
14:51the time.
14:52You know, I'm sure she was prim and proper.
14:53Those were, you know, the ladies in Islam at that time, very respectful and the carriage and all of that.
15:00But the silk and that sort of thing, like I said, they were, they had meager, meager memes because everything
15:08went to the nation.
15:09They didn't have life insurance.
15:11She had, you know, all these kids and pregnant with twins at the time of his assassination.
15:17But I did get to speak to her daughter and, you know, her mother, a PhD, a doctor, you know,
15:24brilliant.
15:25So I could get some insight.
15:28Some things are put on individuals that's just hard to understand and how they can hold up, hold their heads
15:35up and continue on after, you know, such trauma.
15:39During the filming, I was able to hear an audio of that actual evening.
15:47We had a consultant who was very close and in the nation and he had actual tapes of that evening.
15:53And you could hear the gunshot.
15:56You could hear the wailing.
15:58And I studied it and studied it.
16:00The pitch of her voice, the pitch of her sobs, of her crying, of her heartbreaking and attempted and replicated
16:08it.
16:09I remember him lying there and we were rehearsing and during the scene and literally tears fell out of my
16:15eyes into Denzel's eyes.
16:18And it was just such a moment of honoring an amazing activist, man, father, husband, leader, trying to honor with
16:32our spirits and our souls what he gave to make us all free.
16:37But the fact that she could go on, earn her doctorate, her PhD, teach others, bring others along with such
16:45clarity and sanity is amazing to me.
17:16I remember.
17:17I remember auditioning for John Singleton.
17:20He was like 19 years old, just out of, you know, at USC.
17:24First project.
17:25It was taken such good care of by the studio.
17:28Lawrence and I, maybe about eight years before, were on set on a different movie that was to be my
17:35first movie.
17:36And the plug got pulled.
17:38So it was film us, interrupt us, until we were able to unite and go ahead with Boys in the
17:45Hood.
17:45And that began what really I feel he feels and a lot of audience have felt is just a real
17:53chemistry between he and I.
17:54And I think it started in this scene.
17:57If it continued on a little more, we were really good at improv-ing a little bit.
18:02So although it was written, sit your ass down, I thought it was just like a little too harsh.
18:09So I added, you may be cute, but you ain't special.
18:14It's no different from what mothers have been doing from the beginning of time.
18:19It's just too bad more brothers won't do the same.
18:23But don't think you're special.
18:26You may be cute, but I'm special.
18:32Lawrence is my brother.
18:33Love him.
18:33Love this scene.
18:35John Singleton, I think, hired me because I did a poem in the audition of, or I said that Langston
18:41Hughes was my favorite poet, and it was his as well.
18:44And he said that I reminded him of his mother.
18:47I just took away John's enthusiasm.
18:50He was, when he described a scene, he was like, we're going to do this, and then you're going to
18:55slap him.
18:56And you're like, okay, and what happens for the rest of the movie?
19:00But he would just give you these little tidbits that were sort of intriguing.
19:04That'd be the bulk of it, until you received the script and got on the set, and it was just
19:09awesome.
19:09But it was very, very collaborative and just such a gentleman and gentle person.
19:15This was my first movie.
19:18I was happy to get a movie that I was in because up to then I had just been doing
19:23a lot of television episodic work.
19:25And you found then that they tended to pigeonhole you a little bit.
19:31You know, if you were a TV actor, they would keep you in the TV actor lane.
19:35Film was different.
19:36So what I really loved about John is that he was a young filmmaker.
19:40He was brand new.
19:41And he gave me, you know, an opportunity as a young actor to the city.
19:47But when you're on that hustle and that grind of, you know, trying to build a career, trying to go
19:52from job to job, you know, keep the lights on.
19:55I wasn't aware, living in the valley, what was going on in South Central, two very different places, until it
20:01sort of hit.
20:02And then there are, you know, curfews and the like that are imposed.
20:06But this film, there were a lot of films that came out around this time of the young black boys
20:14or from in the hood.
20:17But this was a very beautifully eloquent, graceful portrayal of the life for, you know, young men growing up.
20:29It was done very, very well and with a great deal of heart.
20:33And as I said before, with a great deal of care by the executives that were making sure John, as
20:39a new filmmaker, first time filmmaker, had all the support that he needed.
20:51She nearly died.
20:53What do you have to say to that?
20:57Good.
20:58She's a punk-ass slut.
21:01You're under arrest.
21:02You can't do that.
21:04Oh, no?
21:04I saw what you hid in your bag.
21:07Huh?
21:12Party's over.
21:13You are in such trouble.
21:15My father's an attorney.
21:16Tax attorney.
21:17Sometimes I'm amazed at the writers on 9-1-1 and how they just happen to write things that sort
21:26of kind of mirror what's going on at home.
21:29Thankfully, bullying to the degree that we have in this scene didn't occur with my daughter.
21:36But there was sort of a general tension.
21:39You know, if you're a type A person, type, maybe for my son, he's a type A personality boy.
21:46And so A's and A's, sometimes butt heads a little bit.
21:50But they came out on top.
21:52Not to this degree, which was very sad.
21:54And I remember being, you know, a little difficult to film, especially the scene with May, the character May, who
22:01is my daughter.
22:02And I discover her and she, you know, attempted suicide, you know, based on this bullying and the pills and
22:10the stuff.
22:10So, you know, trying to jump into action, you know, be actionable as a cop, someone in authority, but also
22:18balance that with a mother, which would be grief and horror, anger, frustration, all those things as you, you know,
22:25try to get your daughter attended to.
22:26I'm always trying to balance that a little bit because I, Angela, like to go for the emotion, but I
22:33am a cop and I must remain steady and logical.
22:37I didn't need much convincing from Ryan Murphy.
22:39I had been working with him on four iterations of American Horror Story.
22:44So that was a number of years.
22:46So I'd already been in the universe and played in the sandbox.
22:49This was going to be a little bit different because it was network.
22:52So some of the things, you know, the riskier things that we could do on, you know, elsewhere, you know,
22:59it's going to be sort of tampered down on a network television.
23:03But I knew it was going to be intriguing, captivating, all those things, fun, camp, you know, a little bit
23:12of everything in the gumbo, you know, in the pot.
23:14I remember he would call me, pitch one idea, a political idea.
23:19These were just thoughts that he had about different stories and different series that he had ideas.
23:25Oh, that sounds good.
23:26Okay, I'll wait for the script to read it.
23:28So that one never came.
23:30And then here comes 911.
23:32And I think it came out of a situation where something happened with this kid and he called, ended up
23:39calling the firemen.
23:42And they came and they sort of rescued and saved and calmed and soothed.
23:47And he thought, oh, so that was sort of the genesis of how he was inspired to write a show
23:56about first responders.
23:58Then he called me and Athena, goddess of war, here I am.
24:06Well, we've come to the end, but thank you so much for watching.