Hollywood icon Angela Bassett will receive an honorary Oscars at this year’s Governors awards. On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the 64-year old will receive the award alongside other industry figures, including screen legend Mel Brooks and film editor Carol Littleton.
In a press release, Academy president Janet Yang said, “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting.”
Bassett scored her first Oscar nomination in 1994 for her portrayal of the late rock legend Tina Turner, in Brian Gibson’s biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Bassett told Variety on the film’s 30th anniversary this week that the preparation for the film was intense and gruelling.
“You got up at five in the morning, went to the gym to workout for two and a half hours,” she said. “Then you would… learn routines — which were all intense cardio — for about 10 hours. Ten hours!”
“You had to be so focused and so determined. Pain was irrelevant. Fear was real and physical pain and torture was just going to be a part of it. Every part of your body hurt and there was no time to eat anything.”
Earlier this year, Bassett received her second Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Queen Ramonda in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
She made history with that nomination as the first person of colour, the first woman and the first Marvel Studios actor to be nominated for a role in a comic book adaptation. When she lost out to Jamie Lee Curtis, the many fans were outraged.
Some are calling this latest Oscars award a “consolation prize”, even “insulting”. One entertainment reporter wrote, “Angela Bassett has quite literally been out-acting and acting circles around nearly everyone for the last few decades. She’s your favourite actor’s favourite actor, for crying out loud… She deserves more than an honorary anything. She deserves the real thing. She’s earned the real thing.”
Another wrote on Twitter, “The Academy Awards wanting Angela Bassett to accept an honorary Oscar is insulting. She BEEN earned it authentically & they’re trying to clean up the fact that racism runs deep in that show’s process. Calling it honorary leaves a stain that she didn’t get it by “their” standards.”
In April, Bassett was included in this year’s TIME100 list of the Most Influential People in the world.
In a moving tribute to the actor, just one month before her death, Tina Turner wrote in Time that Bassett “never mimicked me.”
“Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world.”
“That’s your gift, becoming your character with conviction, truth, dignity, and grace, even when it’s painful, and takes everything you have and more. It’s not just acting, it’s being.”
“Whether you’re Tina Turner or the Queen of Wakanda, we believe in you because you believe in yourself. You honour all the women you play, just as you honoured me. And you’re still perfect.”
Her other movies include “Boyz N the Hood” (1991), “Malcolm X” (1992), “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (1998), “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” (2018) and Pixar’s “Soul” (2020).
The honorary Oscars are only given to a select few – those whose extraordinary talents have shaped the film industry. Past recipients include Deborah Kerr, Sophia Loren and Peter Weir.
The Governors awards will be held in Hollywood on 18 November.