The Truth About Angie Tres

January 18th is Angela Bassett Day in her hometown, St. Petersburg Florida. She also has a key to the city where she grew up in housing projects.

Angela on her transition from the Sunshine State to the less sunny weather at Yale:

• "There's no heat in those ivy tower buildings," she recalls. "I spent my first winter up against a radiator."
  
  
• "Every time I spoke my freshman year, people stopped me in mid-sentence to ask me where I was from. I had some regionalism, some slang, that I sure didn't know about until then. I said, 'I'm finna go.' We said, 'Finna go' in St. Petersburg. I don't even know how to spell that!"

Angela on the real Tina showing up at the end of Whats Love:

"I was disappointed the first time I saw it," she said. "The whole movie, you go for the ride and believe this is the person. You suspend disbelief for those two hours. You do all the work and, in the end, you want to the curtain call."

When she saw the reworked ending, Bassett reportedly left the screening in tears. Laurence Fishburne complained that it was "a slap in the face" to a fine actor. Feelings have since been soothed and Bassett now says she doesn't mind sharing that curtain call with Turner.

"Hey, I love Tina," Bassett said. "Let her have it. This is also her time. She's still around and touring. Great, go get Tina.

Because you know what? If something like the Oscars should happen, if I should be so fortunate, it'll be me walking up there."

Read the First and Second Truths too!