Angela Bassett has reflected on how she felt to have missed out on an award at last year’s Oscars.
In 2023, Angela scored her second Academy Award nomination for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, making history as the first actor to receive recognition at the Oscars for a performance in a Marvel movie.
Unfortunately for her, Everything Everywhere All At Once star Jamie Lee Curtis ended up winning the Best Supporting Actress Award, with many viewers picking up on Angela’s visible disappointment at the time.
Almost a year later, the former American Horror Story star spoke out about the moment in a new interview with Oprah Winfrey for OWN.
“I just knew your name was going to be called,” Oprah told her guest of last year’s Oscars ceremony. “And then when they didn’t, I was beside myself.”
“I was gobsmacked… I was,” Angela said with a laugh, while the host pointed out her face was “all over the internet”.
“I thought you handled it very well,” Oprah insisted, to which the actor responded: “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 was disappointed, and I handled it like a human being.”
Angela said she wanted to set an example for her children, who attended last year’s Oscars ceremony, adding: “There are going to be these moments of disappointment that they are going to experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them?
“So, we are going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway…”
Angela was previously nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It.
Since last year’s ceremony, she has been bestowed with an Honorary Oscar in recognition of her cinematic work over the course of her career.