Angie Promotes Notorious in London and Berlin!

Angela Bassett gets righteous in England:

In an interview with Guardian Daily's Hannah Pool, Ang tells it like it is, takes us to church, and reminds us why we love her so.

"Even though we're free on paper and in laws, I'm not going to allow you to enslave me on film for the world to see. It becomes a bigger thing than me just being a movie star. Its about educating minds."

Listen and download the entire interview here! The interview starts 22:37 minutes in...

Jawn Murray of BlackVoices.com talks to Angie about Movies, Motherhood & Making New Moves:

You are directing your first film. Tell me about that.

The film is based on a book by Percival Everett called 'Erasure.' I always thought that I had a third eye, but it's frightening and I always wonder if I can pull it off. That's what's exciting; you don't want to get too comfortable. It's still a challenge. That's what this movie was starting out. You don't know how it's gonna turn out, you just know that it's gonna pan out. This is something that keeps you alive, wakes you up and keeps you guessing. It's a good story. I've had opportunities in the past to direct smaller, independent movies and television shows. I never want to do it just for the heck of it. As much time and attention as I play a character, imagine doing that for all of the characters, all the sets, all the lighting, all the music and all of the executives who are not creative. I cannot go through all of that if I'm not passionate about it and don't mind talking about it all the time and don't mind having that conversation over and over again. I hadn't found that script.

You are working on 'E.R.' now, which is your return to TV. Why did you decide to take on a TV acting part?

Times have changed. There used to be such a separation between TV and film acting. Now you have people moving back and forth between the two. It's no longer like film actors are better that television actors or stage actors are better than television actors. I'm glad that 'ER' is an ensemble show because with a one hour episode in drama seems to never end and it's three, four or six months before it finally comes to an end. I can't imagine doing a two hander or a show that really stars one person because your life is not your own all year long except for maybe five weeks and if it's a drama it's so emotional because you're doing that 16 hours a day nonstop. It's like trying to hold on to a moving train; it never slows down. Even on the weekends, you work on Friday night until four in the morning, you have Sunday and then Monday morning you hit it again. You're doing one scene and trying to memorize the next scene and it'Angela Bassetts like the only thing you know for sure is your name. I would think that it could get to be too much where you fake it unless you have a photographic memory. That ain't me.

How do you and your husband balance both being working actors and having children?

When the kids came along, he finished 'Law & Order' so he was home. Our lives are blessed, but it's not to the point where I know my next projects for the next five years. It's still very much like the life of most actors. You're doing this one; it comes to an end, what's the next one? It's worked out that we've both been there and he's been there. It was great that I did 'E.R.' and he was asked to come on as my husband. It was supposed to be for three episodes and then it got stretched to maybe five because it's working so it's been extended. So far it's working out. At the end of this, he just got a new pilot so he'll start with that. The ebb and flow of this life has worked out. I think the hardest part for me is that I work 15 minutes from home, but if you're on location for a film, you go away and it's so tough. I was talking to another actress who came back to the show, Alex Kingston, and she went to to do a TV show for five months and her child stayed in . She came home every six weeks or once a month for a couple of days. I was like, 'Let's not even talk about it because I can't imagine.' I'm 15 minutes from work, but their schedule is their schedule. On Monday, I have to be there at 6:00 am which means I have to get up at five, but they're not up at 5:00 am. They're not up until 7:00 am. I have to do a 12 to a 16 hour day and when I get home at 8:00 pm, they're sleep because they go to bed at 7:30. Then, on Fridays we might work until 3:00 in the morning so that's the hard part. I'm in the house with them- the husband and the children- and I haven't seen you all day or I haven't seen you for two days.

Read the full interview at [BlackVoices.com]

For Your Information:

• Make sure to catch the NAACP Image Awards tonight at 8PM on FOX! Ang is nominated for two awards and you know shes walking away with at least one.

• Plus Gospel Hill is now available on DVD! Both Amazon.com and Walmart have the award winning film starring Angela, Danny Glover, Nia Long, Samuel L. Jackson, and Giancarlo Esposito in stock.

• The release date for Nothing But the Truth is postponed since the distribution company for the film went bankrupt in January but, the political thriller is available for free download here!

Alonzo Bodden: He's Got Jokes!

Check out this comedy clip 0:27 seconds in!

Quick AB News: TV Dates!

Be on the look out for Angie B on TV next month!

Gospel Hill Feb. 10
Available on DVD [Amazon.com]

The BET Honors Awards Feb. 9 BET 9PM
Angela will be presenting an award to Judith Jamison

The 40th Annual NAACP Image Awards Feb. 12 FOX 8PM
Angela is nominated for two awards

ER Thursdays NBC 10pm
Angela Bassett stars every week! Series finale is April 2nd.

Angela Bassett Brought Sister Along to See Obama Sworn In!

YES WE CAN!!!

YES WE DID!!!

Angela and Sister D'Nette in attendance at Tuesday's HISTORICAL inauguration of our 44th President- Barack Obama!!




Tickets: Pricey. Expression on their faces: Priceless ! Only ones missing--The Bassetthounds lol. Words can't even come close to describing what it means to have such an honor bestowed on a more worthy man in OUR lifetime!

Along with her little sis, Angie attended Barack Obama's inauguration with friends Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington, while Oprah snapped pictures of the three leading black actors in D.C. Angela B also was witness to the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln center with fellow actors Marisa Tomei and Forest Whitaker backstage.

Angie B: Carnivore or Vegan?

Its been a long and arduous debate for us BassettHounds on the true identity of Angela Bassett's eating habits. Some of us say she is a vegetarian who likes raw food over meat. Where did we get this idea? In every one of the many interviews we read while BassettHounding, she is always quoted as snacking on items like grapes, broccoli sticks, and tofu. Does that sound like a carnivore to you? No, I thought not, but then some of us BassettHounds refer to Angela's upbringing in the fried bacon and meat lovin' south and her previous films when attempting to prove her meat eating habits. In the film Mr. 3000 starring the late Bernie Mac, Angela no less than devours a nice big slab of steak. Now unless they started making vegan steaks, Angela is a carnivore, right? No. We finally decided to look at the facts of the matter:

• Fact 1: Angela Bassett's skin says it all. Glowing, flawless, not one hint of greasy meat stains in sight.

• Fact 2: Much like fact 1, Angela takes real good care of herself. Poisoning her body with yummy Big Mac's doesnt fit well with the queen's desire to keep her shape.

• Fact 3: And this is a good one...Angela Bassett herself said in one informative interview this week that she "loves vegan choices, raw food choices" and she'll eat whatever shes has to in order to get in shape "for any one particular role."

If I sound saddened by this newly found Angie B News, its because I am. My money was on her being a meat eating carnivore seeing as shes from the deep south and well...Angela was getting down on that steak in Mr. 3000. But looking back, it was probably because she hadnt eaten meat in so long. :) The only good news on this front is that Angie wont judge us if we get in to some good ol' bacon and eggs now and again. She says, "I try to eat healthy, but I won't get on other people's nerves about it. If you want to eat bacon, I'm OK with that."

So for those of you who were still wondering, our queen Angela Bassett is in fact a vegan. A raw food, celery stick munching, vegan.

Read more on Angie's favorite LA hotspots for facials, spas, outings with the twins, and restaurants where she frequently doesnt eat meat. [LATimes.com]

Angela Attends Notorious Premiere

With one week to go before “Notorious” opens in movie theaters, the premiere was held at the AMC Lincoln Square in New York.

Angela, working the polka dots, attends the premiere with fellow cast mates and the who's who in the music industry, showing their love and

support for the late Notorious B.I.G. As the film release approaches, we are sure Angela will be doing more press, so stay tuned! For now, here are various interviews of Angela talking about her role in the film.

• What attracted her to the role? Watch rollingoutTELEVISION
• Want more insight on her use of Ms. Wallace’s Accent? Watch Access Hollywood
• Who does Angela think Christopher Wallace was? Watch BlackFilm.Com
• Why does Angela think rap music is so important to today’s youth? Watch ArtisanNewsService
  

Angela Promotes Notorious in New York

Notorious B.I.G. - Nobody Is Invincible

In preparation for the theatrical release of Notorious the cast including Angela traveled to New York last week for promotions. Above is a scene from the film between Angela Bassett and Jamal Woodard. Below are photos of Angie posing during a press junket and an interview and clip with Voletta Wallace.

One of the most challenging aspects of playing Wallace was getting down the Jamaican accent, Bassett said. "It took awhile," the actress admitted. "Some of it, I had to work on it, get it later."

"Certain parts of the script, I taped my voice, and I guess that's how she got my accent," Wallace said. "They sent me tapes, I sent her tapes. And I was on the set every day. So there was not a time when she said, 'Oh, Mrs. Wallace, how was that?' She didn't have to do that. We had lunch together a lot. We had breakfast one morning. We'd just chat, woman to woman, mother to mother. We had a nice rapport together."

Bassett says having Wallace watch her every day made her a little nervous, but she was also reassured. "It can be a little intimidating, because you hope you're getting it right," she said. "You hope you're meeting their standards. We all have a way of seeing ourselves, the truth of it as we wish it were. Some of us are real honest with ourselves. Some of us embellish it. Mrs. Wallace is a straight shooter. Any question I had, I could go right to her. Lean into it. It was like girlfriends.

Visit MTV.com for more clips and the full interview!

Nothing But the Truth: Movie Trailer and Poster

The power couple star in another project together! Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance play a Newspaper Editor in Chief and a CIA Director respectively in Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truth. They both play the people in charge but on opposite sides of the issue. Be sure to catch this drama thats getting plenty of Oscar buzz in theaters on January 9th!










In Related AB News...

Rod Lurie Does the Right Thing

It’s not often in Hollywood that a director makes decisions based on his conscience as opposed to his wallet, but kudos to Rod Lurie for making the right choice.

Lurie, whose latest film “Nothing But the Truth” comes out Dec. 19, says that he purposely asked Oscar nominee Angela Bassett to be in this story about a D.C. reporter who serves time protecting her source to make the film more realistic.

“She’s really one of the world’s great actors,” Lurie said. “I’ll tell you this. I’ll be very truthful with you–maybe to my detriment. I wanted to cast a black actor in that role or some significant role because I wanted to have real-world diversity, but also what’s realistic is that in the Washington, D.C. prison it’s 95 percent African American. I thought it would be uncouth to have a movie where every African American is a guard or a prisioner. ”

Plus, even though newspapers aren’t the most diverse environment these days Lurie felt it would look unrealistic to not have an African American represented in a D.C. newsroom.

“I don’t personally know of any African American female editors, but I thought that it would be very cool to sort of fictionally, at least, break that barrier. Angela was very game with that, too. I think that’s another reason why she did it. I don’t know what her exact fee was but it wasn’t the Angela Bassett fee.”

The role was originally cast with Edie Falco of “The Sopranos” but she had scheduling conflicts. Joining Bassett in this project are the film’s star Kate Beckinsale, Bassett’s current “ER” costar Noah Wylie, her real-life husband Courtney B. Vance and Vera Farmiga.

Lurie, by the way, who also directed “Resurrecting the Champ” with Samuel L. Jackson, indicated he’d love to do a film on one of his old high school classmates from Hawaii. His name is Barack Obama.

Angela Shopping in Beverly Hills

Angela Bassett was caught by the paparazzi yesterday, shopping in Beverly Hills. She was working a Fendi bag and looking completely flawless. Be sure to catch her tonight in a special episode of ER on NBC!



Angela's Derriere?

I think the French are BassettHounds as well or maybe just fans of her behind! This soon to be released french film, A Christmas Tale, shows a dysfunctional family that lost a son in the past. When their other son comes home with a new girlfriend with some extra junk in the trunk, they say she looks like Angela Bassett through out the rest of the film! Below you can watch a clip from the movie including the Angela's derriere joke and an explanation from the director, Arnaud Desplechin!

I couldn't resist asking about something you reference twice in the film: Angela Bassett's ass. What inspired specifically hers for a recurring joke?

I mean, we are speaking about such an amazing lady. You have to be brave when you write such a line because you are trying to make a good joke, and in French, maybe no one will laugh because no one knows her. I'm an absolute fan of Angela Bassett. I think she's a great, great actress. In the biopics, she is so moving. She's very rare. It's something that doesn't happen that much, to see an actress inventing a new way of showing "woman" onscreen, and a new way of being beautiful. You remember this great film, a science fiction movie: "Strange Days"? Her beauty was new and shocking. Plus, I love her butt in "Vampire in Brooklyn," have you seen this film? Great film. Great butt. And her performance as Tina Turner? Beautiful legs, too.

Angela and Courtney Together on Small Screen

Check out an interview from this husband and wife acting team and find out how they like working together, and why Courtney will not run his lines with Angela.

Last week was the introduction of Courtney’s character, Russell Banfield. There is obviously some tension between the couple and it looks like this week's episode, "Heal Thyself," is going to shed some light on this situation. Angela’s character, Dr. Cate Banfield, rescues a three-year-old girl from drowning in a lake, which triggers flashbacks to their son having a stroke. He is taken to County where they come in contact with Dr. Greene (Anthony Edwards). What seems to make Russell more upset than his son; is Cate acting like a doctor rather than a mother. Tune in BassettHounds to see how this story unfolds.

Here are some clips and well as behind the scenes footage from the upcoming episode "Heal Thyself" which airs this Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.

Angela's Beauty Secrets?

"Angela Bassett personifies the kind of woman who buys Olay products. She has ageless beauty and an aura of sophistication but she's also very likable and real, a very rare combination," said Brenda Blonski, senior vice president/group creative director at Burrell who handles Procter & Gamble's African-American marketing.

We all know Angela seems to get better with age, so is this her secret? Angela became the official spokesperson for Olay in 2005 and is still going strong with a new print ad for Quench body lotion. You can check out this ad in magazines such as Essence and Ebony. Below you can also see the commercial ads for Olay Definity and Olay Definity Eye Illuminator.