Black Panther Wakanda is Angela Bassett's Oscar bid

Hollywood Spotlight had to listen to the cries of the people in movie land.

One day after the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Angela Bassett's performance in the new Black Panther film has fans cheering about its potential for an Oscar nomination. She shines in one of the biggest films of the year, but real fans know that this is just another notch in her amazing career portraying iconis characters.

Bassett has reached "Hollywood Legend" status

There are several that makes my all-time favorite characters list including her fiery role in "Waitig to Exhale." Remeber the scene where she lit a cigarette and tossed it onto a fresh line of gasoline leading to her cheating husbands car and it goes kaboom).

Bassett joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2018's Black Panther portraying Ramonda, the Queen of Wakanda and mother of Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa, a role that she reprised briefly in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Bassett in particular arguably puts her career-best performance in the role, with incredibly raw emotion packed into her delivery of each line of the script.

No stranger to awards, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Black Reel Awards, a Golden Globe Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for one Academy Award and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Watch the spoiler-free Black Panther: Wakanda Forever insightful review

Crushing it in "What's love got to do with it"

The 1993 film stars Angela Bassett as Tina Turner and Laurence Fishburne as her husband Ike Turner. Adapted from Tina Turner's autobiography I, Tina (1986), the film follows her life from a rural upbringing to her rise to stardom, along with her abusive marriage to Ike Turner.That film tested her on multiple levels. It demanded that she have the strength, build, officially physicality and muscular coordination to mimic the electrifying Tina Turner who's physique has been legendary. Bassett pulled it off, getting ripped and learning to dance like a demon on Broadway. On top of that it tested her ability to add a heavy dose of dramatic expertise. That's it again Rose to the challenge, and during difficult seems that involved physical, sexual and emotional abuse while portraying a legendary artist who Rose to fame through it all. It was stirring and worth watching again.

The film is one of those expoeriences that leave a lasting impression about both Ike and Tina Turner, the musical eras they emerged from and the hard work and emotional toll necessary to make it in the rough and tumble world of entertainment. For many movie fans that watched the flick, "What's Love Got to Do With It" ranks as one of the most harrowing, uncompromising showbiz biographies ever.

In one of the movie’s first spousal abuse scenes, Tina tries to escape Ike’s wrath, eventually back up into a couch and falling over the back of it. It turns out that the acting in the scene on Bassett’s part wasn’t really acting.

According to IMDb, Bassett wasn’t meant to fall over the sofa. When she realized she had, she put her hands out to cushion the impact of her fall once. She suffered a hairline fracture in her right hand as a result.As chronicled in the behind-the-scenes documentary The Making of ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’, Turner herself worked with Bassett to ensure that she captured her whole essence when playing her — from her iconic dance moves to her larger-than-life personality. To this day, Bassett is still grateful for the movie and for Turner’s spirit touching her life.The film grossed $40.1 million in the United States and Canada and $20.5 million internationally for a worldwide total of $60.6 million. The movie made her one of the hottest breakout stars of the ’90s, earning her roles in other hits such as Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

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How Bassett got to the top

In spite of an ivy League education, Bassett Rose from humble beginnings.According to her wikipedia biography, Bassett began her acting career in the 1980s, after graduating from Yale University, one of the premiere institutions for acting. Following a few minor roles, including as Reva Styles in Boyz n the Hood (1991), Bassett had her breakthrough with her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in the biopic What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous acclaimed and successful films, including; as Betty Shabazz in both Malcolm X (1992) and Panther (1995), as Katherine Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), as Voletta Wallace in Notorious (2009), as Amanda Waller in Green Lantern (2011), and as Coretta Scott King in Betty & Coretta (2013).

Her other notable film roles include Bernandine Harris in Waiting to Exhale (1995), Rachel Constantine in Contact (1997), Stella Payne in How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Janet Williams in Music of the Heart (1999), Lynne Jacobs in Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and London Has Fallen (2016), and Queen Ramonda in Black Panther (2018) and its upcoming sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), as well as in Avengers: Endgame (2019). It doesn't end there.

Bassett conquers TV too

Bassett is a star on the small screen as well. On television, Bassett's portrayal of Rosa Parks in the television film The Rosa Parks Story (2002), garnered her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. In 2013, Bassett had a recurring role on the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story: Coven, earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. She returned as a series regular for Freak Show, the series' fourth season, portraying Desiree Dupree, for which she received another Primetime Emmy Award nomination. For the fifth season, Hotel, she portrayed Ramona Royale, a famous movie star. Bassett returned to the series's sixth season, Roanoke, portraying an alcoholic actress named Monet Tumusiime, who plays struggling mother and former police officer Lee Harris in the My Roanoke Nightmare documentary, and she reprised her role as Marie Laveau in a guest role in the eighth season Apocalypse. In 2018, Bassett began producing and starring in the Fox first responder drama series 9-1-1, playing LAPD patrol sergeant Athena Grant.

Bassett had to carry the roll of matriarch and defender of wakanda and the latest Black panther film. Considering the loss of chocolate Baldwin, it was important for script writers to leverage the very best talent they had available. They went to her like the warriors go to Steph curry. And she delivered, so much so that there's extraordinary buzz around her being nominated for best actress for the academies. Stay tuned for so much more about this record-breaking movie franchise and the marvel universe and the actors who bring the characters of life as well as the producers writers and people behind the scenes that kept its vision alive for the fans.

Without Boseman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever needed a star

The first Black Panther film made superhero movie history at the Oscars by being Marvel Studio's first best picture nominee, and also by being the first comic book movie to earn that recognition. As of yet, no MCU actor or actress has ever received a nomination for their performances in the franchise. However, with the film seeing positive early reviews and Bassett's performance already being praised,

it is possible that the Black Panther franchise could make history at the Oscars again. It would be fitting to see Bassett on the nomination list considering the tremendous challenge she and the rest of the cast faced making a film without Chadwick Boseman who brought T'Chala to life before his passing.

Bassett gives a powerful performance that may even change the minds of some of the directors out there about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This character is a woman who not only lost her husband several years back in an assassination but lost her children in the Snap. This is a role that requires so much. The character is dealing with the death of her son, which has thrown the country into a perilous situation in the world.

When T'Challa dies in this film, she has to be a regent for her country, represent it at the United Nations, then deal with the loss of Shuri and the attack on her country. Every moment, every turn of her head, and every look in her eye shows a powerful woman who has been through hell and still retains grace and strength.

Back to the Oscar Buzz about her performance. Based on her statements, she is not expecting any awards because let’s face it, actors do not usually join superhero movies to earn prestigious accolades. But, seeing her deliver an exemplary performance had fans campaigning for her name at the Academy Awards.