Alluring Facts About Angela Bassett You Probably Didn’t Know

Angela Evelyn Bassett Vance, in her three-decade long career, took the entire Hollywood industry by storm, with elegant yet magnificent portrayals of smart and strong African-American women. Her captivating performances has always left the audience in awe, as she turns into the character, and takes us also deep into the heart of her role. Here are some interesting facts about the actress, who is kind of a household name, what with her roles in “American Horror Story,” and “9-1-1” TV series:

1. She is the first African-American actress to have won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, for her role as Tina Turner in the 1993 movie “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” Her performance was ranked at #95 on Premiere Magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Film Performances of all time.
2. Her co-star Laurence Fishburne who played the role of Ike Turner in the movie, actually accepted the offer to star in the movie, after turning it down for more than 5 times, only after he got to know that Angela had been cast as Tina Turner.
3. Bassett became interested in a career as an actress in the filming industry, only after watching actor James Earl Jones perform in a Kennedy Center production of the play “Of Mice and Men,” in Washington, D.C., during her class trip in 11^th grade class, in the year 1974.
4. Having worked with the real Whitney Houston in the 1995 movie “Waiting to Exhale,” she went on to direct “Whitney” a TV movie. The most famous opening line “Time to be Whitney Houston,” is said to have been ad-libbed, on her suggestion, while filming.
5. However, Houston’s family was not satisfied with the movie, with Whitney’s mother Cissy claiming that none of the individuals involved in the production of the movie, knew the real singer well enough to portray her.
6. Even Whitney’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown was said to be angry at Angela for not casting her in the role of her late mother. Brown expressed interest in playing the role, just as the biopic was in the initial stages, but Angela clearly refused to even consider her for the role, as she was not an actress and that acting is a craft.
7. Angela accepted the role of Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs in “Olympus Has Fallen” only because she had been waiting for an opportunity to work with Morgan Freeman.
8. In fact, the role of Jacobs was initially intended and written to be for a man in the original script, but with Antoine Fuqua persuading Bassett to audition, the character was re-written to be a woman.
9. She was the first choice for the role of Leticia Musgrove, in the movie “Monster’s Ball” but due to the requirement of performing nude in some scenes, she had to pass it over to Halle Berry.
10. During the filming of the first spousal abuse sequence in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” she injured herself while falling off the back of a high-rise sofa, and suffered a hairline fracture in her right hand. The footage of the mishap can be seen in the movie.
11. For her role as Queen Ramonda in the “Black Panther,” Bassett underwent intense training with Corey Calliet, with high-intensity interval training circuits, focused on her lower body. Calliet’s special regimen in intervals of 30 second on, 30 second off, up to an hour at a time, was said to be the fastest and the most effective way to burn fat.
12. The special wig that Angela wore for her role as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther” was made up of 120 pieces of hair that were rolled and handmade into multiple dreadlocks, specifically for her.
13. When the real singer Tina Turner met Angela Bassett, to get to know who is going to portray the singer in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” Tina exclaimed aloud “She’s perfect,” just after walking up to Bassett.
14. Bassett’s famous line “Right here! Right now!” from her 1995 movie “Strange Days,” was sampled as the only “lyrics” used repeatedly in the song “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim, his best known song.