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!
Where do you get all this info from Simo? You can bring out the most random quotes. But I love it! I remember reading about Angie being disappointed when seeing the poster and it didn’t have her picture on it. “After all that hard work, I wanted to see my picture up there. You finally get a lead in a film, then to see a line drawing and it doesn’t even look like a black woman.” I did think that was disrespectful, but then I always get mad when Angie doesn’t get the credit she deserves.
ReplyDeleteYeah homegirl didnt win the Oscar, her last scene was cut in the movie, AND she didnt get the cover of the film. They were messing with her BIG time bc she rocked that role.
ReplyDeleteI just cant wait for the day we dont have to refer to this movie as her best role. Shes so much more than her roles from the 90s.