Actor Angela Bassett, ace monologer and premium crier, will finally get the Oscar she has been denied for decades at this year’s Governors Awards. For her longstanding contribution to cinema, Bassett will receive an honorary Oscar — along with writer/director Mel Brooks and editor Carol Littleton.
Bassett was first nominated for Best Actress in 1993, for her lived-in portrayal of Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It? She lost out to Emma Thompson’s performance in Howard’s End, a stuffy English drama our that parents made us sit through instead of renting My Cousin Vinny like we repeatedly asked.
Earlier this year, Bassett was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her tour de force performance as the grieving Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But she lost to Jamie Lee Curtis, who did karate in Everything Everywhere All At Once — and nobody beats karate.
But it seems the Academy is making it right, or at least more honorable:
Predictably, the internet is channeling Peter O’Toole’s legendary observation that he didn’t “want to be an honorary any damn thing.” They think Bassett deserves a traditional Oscar on a traditional Oscar night:
We’re not going to wade into the discussion of whether race has anything to do with this — though we would not die of shock if it does — but we will support the narrative that Jamie Lee Curtis, while a treasure, did not deliver a better performance than Bassett in Wakanda Forever.
You could hear a pin drop in theaters when Bassett took stage in the Black Panther sequel. People were openly weeping as she talked about the pain of losing her son — and the late Chadwick Boseman who portrayed him. Plus, she ensured Queen Ramonda faced certain death at the hands of Namor with enough dignity to make it believable that someone else had gotten the best of her. Chalk Bassett’s loss up to comic book fatigue if you want, but it was certainly the best performance of the year among those nominated in the category.
Per NBC News, the Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Honorary Award is meant to “honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or outstanding service to the Academy.” Academy President Janet Yang said, “Across her decades-long career, Angela Bassett has continued to deliver transcendent performances that set new standards in acting.” But not any standards recognized by the majority of Academy voters, apparently.
The Governors Awards ceremony will take place on Nov. 18, and we’ll keep side-eying until then.
