Courtney B. Vance does not hold back when discussing his wife, actress Angela Bassett. Speaking with people at the American Black Film Festival Honors in Los Angeles (where he received the Excellence in the Arts Award), Courtney B. Vance expressed his view that it was about time his wife, Angela Bassett, received an Oscar.
He cited the 1993 Academy Award nominee as “overdue” for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star.
After witnessing her heartbreaking performance as Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do With It? in 1994 and her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2023, anyone who has followed Angela Bassett’s career is bound to have an opinion on both of her Oscar nominations. Not only do her admirers believe that she was cheated, but her spouse, Courtney B. Vance, is still hurting over his wife’s initial defeat.
In January, Bassett received an honorary Oscar from the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was a special honor given to those who have made a significant contribution to the film and television industry.
The honorary Oscar acknowledges the breadth of her work, from Boyz In The Hood to Waiting to Exhale. However, it hasn’t been simple for black performers to win Oscars; in the show’s 95-year history, Halle Berry is the only black woman to win Best Actress – an extremely startling statistic.
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Vance was therefore overjoyed that Bassett had at last received recognition from her peers for her abilities, but the hurt from 1994 never really went away.
Courtney B. Vance told People, “The honorary Oscar was a wonderful night, but I flashed back to 30 years ago when they didn’t call her name, and then when they didn’t call her name last March. This was an opportunity for her to stand up there. A lot of people saw it now, but not the billion people that would see it at the Oscars. But it meant everything to her.”
“Thank you, thank you to the Academy and the Board of Governors for this award, the Waiting to Exhale actress said as she accepted her prize during a fifteen-minute acceptance speech. “Acting has been more than just a career for me. I work on this because I think it’s important and because I hope it will have some sort of impact and change the world”.
“To be recognized in this way for what I love doing is truly wonderful, and I am beyond grateful,” the actress said with grace.
In addition, Bassett noted that Cecily Tyson, her mentor was the first black actress in Academy history to win an honorary Oscar; Tyson’s win came in 2018.
Another historical fact is that only one black woman has won Best Actress from the Academy in the 95 years that the Oscar has been given out. Only Halle Berry, who took home the prize in 2002 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, can lay claim to that distinction.