Angela Bassett doesn't think she was 'robbed' of an Oscar for playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It
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Angela Bassett did the thing, and she is being rewarded for it. The iconic actress is nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming 2023 Oscars for her performance as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — marking the very first acting nomination for a role in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Despite Bassett's decades-long career across film and television, it is only her second Oscar nomination.
Her first nod was in the Best Actress category for playing Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic What's Love Got to Do With It, alongside Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner. In a CBS interview this week, Gayle King asked if Turner feels she was "robbed" of that Oscar — which went to Holly Hunter for Jane Campion's film The Piano.
"Of course, in the moment you're hoping and praying and wishing," Bassett said. "But I never walk away thinking, 'I've been robbed.'"
Bassett continued, "That's too negative of an emotion to carry with me for the rest of my life. I choose to believe there was a reason why it didn't happen."
Everett Collection Angela Bassett as Tina Turner in 'What's Love Got to Do With It'
Not everyone agrees with such diplomacy; EW critic Leah Greenblatt included Bassett's loss in EW's The Snub That Still Hurts series last year. While acknowledging the power of Hunter's "ferocious, largely wordless performance" in The Piano, Greenblatt wrote that it seems "impossible" that Bassett only won a Golden Globe for her role in What's Love Got to Do With It, "so completely does she burn down the screen as a woman fighting for her family, her artistry, her dignity, and ultimately, her life."
This time it might be different. The same weekend Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened in U.S. theaters, EW editor Joshua Rothkopf noted that Bassett had strong nomination potential — especially given the split field of multiple contenders from rival films like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Women Talking. Bassett did indeed score a nomination alongside Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis from EEAAO, and her chances of Oscar gold look good in the home stretch.
EW Oscars expert Joey Nolfi predicted a win for Bassett as recently as Feb. 22, writing that the actress represents "proof that movie stars can not only endure, but thrive as Hollywood changes around them." No singular rival has emerged in the preceding awards, with Kerry Condon scoring the equivalent BAFTA for The Banshees of Inisherin and Curtis taking home the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.
So it'll be anyone's game when the 95th Annual Academy Awards arrive on March 12, but we know one thing for sure: No matter what happens, Bassett won't feel robbed.
Watch her full interview above.
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