Last year Angela Bassett was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Ultimately she lost out to Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere All At Once.
However, if you make yourself more, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you can become something else entirely. A meme, Mr Wayne!
Becoming a meme is immortality, and Bassett achieved that on the night of the Oscars. When she lost that Oscar the camera panned in on her. Usually, the losing nominees give their insincere gentle applause with a rictus grin and head tilted to one side.
No Angela Bassett. She sat with a face of stone. Her lips were pursed. Her eyes blazed. And just like that, she went viral.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for OWN, she was asked about this reaction and opened up about her feelings:
“I thought I handled it very well, also. And that was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed, and I handled it like a human being.
There are going to be these moments of disappointment that they’re going to experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them? So, we’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party – anyway.”
Bassett has been nominated for an Oscar twice, once before for Best Actress in What’s Love Got To Do With It. She did win an honorary award at the Governor Awards.
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