With her Golden Globe nomination this year for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022), Angela Bassett now has a chance to win a bookend trophy to the one she first claimed 29 years ago for “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1993). That popular musical biopic was based on the life of Tina Turner, with Bassett portraying the superstar and Laurence Fishburne taking on the role of her husband, Ike Turner. During her [relatively short] acceptance speech, the actress made sure to give Turner, whom she dubbed a “national treasure,” a shout-out at the podium. Watch the Golden Globes flashback video above.
“Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press for honoring me so wonderfully this evening and for finding favor in my portrayal of Tina Turner,” Bassett proclaimed after the applause died down. “Thank you, my director Brian Gibson. The greatest co-star I could ever imagine, Mr. Laurence Fishburne. I love you, Laurence, thank you. And lastly, to the most generous national treasure I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering and portraying. Miss Tina Turner, wherever you are tonight, thank you. Thank you so much. And to all of you, thank you.”
SEE 2023 Golden Globes nominations list: Nominees for 80th annual ceremony
Bassett made history in the Best Film Comedy/Musical Actress category by becoming the first Black actress to prevail. The celebrities who presented the actress with her golden statuette that night were Pierce Brosnan and Laura Dern. Fun fact: Bassett and Brosnan would work together 22 years later in the action thriller “Survivor” (2015).
The category’s co-nominees were Stockard Channing (“Six Degrees of Separation”), Anjelica Huston (“Addams Family Values”), Diane Keaton (“Manhattan Murder Mystery”) and Meg Ryan (“Sleepless in Seattle”). Bassett and Channing faced off again two months later at the Oscars where they, along with Emma Thompson (“The Remains of the Day”) and Debra Winger (“Shadowlands”), lost to Holly Hunter (“The Piano”) for playing a mute Scottish woman.
While Fishburne was snubbed at the Globes for his performance in “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” he was later nominated at the Academy Awards where he lost to Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia”). The musical biopic only received two Oscar bids for Bassett and Fishburne, though the original song “I Don’t Wanna Fight” did pick up a citation at the Grammys. Also that awards season, Bassett took home the Best Actress trophy at the Image Awards and the movie won Best Achievement in Feature Film at the American Choreography Awards.
Can Bassett now claim a Golden Globe for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” all these years later? It’s possible. For her role as Queen Ramonda in the Marvel Studios mega-hit, she’s competing in the Best Film Supporting Actress category against Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”), Dolly De Leon (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Carey Mulligan (“She Said”). As of this writing, Bassett has the support of one Golden Globe Expert (Shawn Edwards of WDAF-TV Fox), one Gold Derby Editor (myself), and three Top 24 Users (Max Dinenberg, Viridiana and luciano santoro).
Don’t forget, the Globes are notorious for rewarding the biggest movie stars, and Bassett certainly fits that bill, with more than 100 projects under her belt throughout her illustrious career. Rewarding Bassett would also be a way for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to send off the blockbuster that is “Black Panther 2” with a trophy; its only other nomination this year is for Best Original Song (“Lift Me Up” by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson).
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