Angela Bassett on Playing Tina Turner and Queen Ramonda of Wakanda

Summary

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The New Yorker Radio Hour

Episode: Angela Bassett on Playing Tina Turner and Queen Ramonda of Wakanda
Date: February 21, 2023
Host: Michael Shulman (staff writer)
Guest: Angela Bassett

Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful conversation between Michael Shulman of The New Yorker and acclaimed actress Angela Bassett. They discuss her storied career—from her breakout in the '90s, including her star turn as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It, to her history-making performances in Black Panther and its sequel as Queen Ramonda. The discussion threads through Bassett’s formative years, her creative process, and her contributions to the representation of Black women in film and television.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Revisiting Angela Bassett’s Career

• Michael Shulman reflects on revisiting Bassett's iconic roles from the 1990s, noting her dramatic return to prominence through the Black Panther franchise (00:21).
• Bassett is the first actor nominated for an Academy Award for a performance in a Marvel film (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever).

2. Crafting Queen Ramonda in Black Panther

• On Working with Green Screen (01:16):
  Bassett explains that much of Black Panther was filmed with elaborate sets rather than relying heavily on green screen:

  “We did very little on the green screen... The throne room was there... We had trees and bushes, and we had water... and Namor came up out of the water.”
  (Angela Bassett, 01:16)

• Searching for the Right Accent (02:34):
  She describes how she used a dialect coach (Ms. Beth) and drew inspiration from influential South African women, like Winnie Mandela, to develop Ramonda’s accent:

  “I would grab maybe three key phrases... maybe a worker... and before a scene, I would... recite them to get me, you know, in the space.”
  (Angela Bassett, 02:37)

3. Formative Years and Early Inspiration

• Growing Up in Florida & Discovering Performance (03:45–06:47):
  Bassett recalls how her mother fostered a love of music and storytelling at home. She found her calling through poetry recitation in a college enrichment program:

  “For me at 15, that drama, that theatre, that words, that passion from one human being could move another. And then maybe I had something. Maybe I had a gift...”
  (Angela Bassett, 06:37)

• Early New York Hustle (06:47–10:26):
  • Worked as an understudy in a traveling play by the Negro Ensemble Company alongside actors like Samuel L. Jackson.
  • Supported herself with day jobs—first, a stressed-out receptionist in a beauty salon, then a more understanding gig at Rockefeller Center:

    “He knew that, you know, this was a means to an end, that here with him was not the end.”
    (Angela Bassett, 09:42)

4. Becoming Tina Turner: Rigors and Rewards

• Grueling Filming of What's Love Got to Do With It (10:40–14:12):
  • Bassett describes 20-hour workdays, performing through physical injury, and relentless dance rehearsals.
  • She methodically absorbed Tina Turner’s vocal and physical rhythms:

    “I would just study each and every detail within a phrase or half a phrase... Did she inhale before she said that? Did she exhale at the end?”
    (Angela Bassett, 11:51)

  • The emotional and physical toll of the performance included losing her voice and strict dieting.

5. Changing Representation Onscreen

• Cultural Significance of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back (14:12–16:06):
  • Bassett reflects on being at the center of films that showcased Black women’s romantic lives with authenticity and nuance:

    “We hadn’t seen ourselves in that way... And they have a joie de vivre. And... they have pain and they’re going through things... But it felt wonderful that times had changed.”
    (Angela Bassett, 14:52, 15:32)

  • The films’ impact as precursors to ensemble works about female friendship, like Sex and the City.

6. The Turn to Comedy

• Exploring Humor (16:06–17:26):
  • Shulman notes her role on Master of None (as Lena Waithe’s mother) and on A Black Lady Sketch Show.
  • Bassett admits she was known as a “drama queen” but is pleased to explore comedic roles:

    “My whole thing was drama... But off camera, my friends say I’m pretty funny. So I appreciate that that’s the way they saw me and that I got that opportunity.”
    (Angela Bassett, 16:46)

  • On the significance of her Master of None role, especially for representation in Black LGBTQ stories:

    “It was an important story to tell, an important moment... To have an opportunity to speak to folk, that’s been a great blessing.”
    (Angela Bassett, 17:26)

7. Oscars, Style, and Royalty

• Discussing the Oscars and the Meaning of Purple (18:53–19:24):
  • Bassett jokes about her Oscar dress, speculating she might wear purple:

    “Purple is the color of royalty. Oh, it’s such a responsibility.”
    (Angela Bassett, 19:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Intensity of Portraying Tina Turner:

  “You might lose a battle, but we're trying to win a war. So you just kept going and going and going, and that's how you did it.”
  (Angela Bassett, 11:13)

• On Inspiring Audiences:

  “Whether it’s what’s love and people who’ve been in abusive relationships and got out of it, or whether it’s Stella and those who thought, well, at 40, it’s over... To have an opportunity to speak to folk, that’s been a great blessing.”
  (Angela Bassett, 17:42)

• On Representation in Film:

  “Here were these movies that featured black women in complicated and loving relationships. And we could do it well. And it wasn’t a joke.”
  (Angela Bassett, 15:50)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:21 – Shulman introduces Angela Bassett, recounts her filmography, cues discussion on Marvel films.
• 01:16 – Bassett explains Marvel filming techniques and the physical set design.
• 02:34 – Developing Wakandan accent; conversation about accent coaching.
• 03:45/06:47 – Bassett’s early years, formative experiences with performance art.
• 10:40 – The challenges of filming What's Love Got to Do With It.
• 14:12 – The cultural importance of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
• 16:06 – Bassett discusses recent comedic work and self-image.
• 18:53 – Closing remarks about the Oscars and the symbolism of royalty.

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Episode Tone and Language

Angela Bassett’s warmth, humor, and candidness animate the conversation. The discussion is imbued with reverence for craft and gratitude for her platform, with an undercurrent of advocacy for visibility and representation. The dialogue feels intimate, reflective, sometimes playful (“I was just drama queen... but off camera, my friends say I’m pretty funny”) and always sincere in its reflections on artistry and impact.

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For those who haven’t listened, this episode is a rich portrait of a legendary actress at the height of her craft, offering inspiration and insight into the art, ambition, and advocacy that have defined her remarkable career.

Transcript

[Angela Bassett]

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.

[David Remnick]

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick, and I'm going to turn things over now to Michael Shulman, a staff writer at the magazine who covers culture and entertainment.

[Michael Shulman]

In preparing to interview Angela Bassett, I kind of threw myself in Angela Bassett Film Festival. I went back and watched or rewatched her, her great film performances from the 90s. There's her Titanic star making performance as Tina Turner in what's Love Got to Do With It? And she kind of ruled the screen in the 90s, and she's worked really steadily since. But, you know, she's had this really interesting resurgence lately, thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Angela plays Queen Ramonda in the Black Panther movies, and she's nominated for best supporting Actress this year for Black Wakanda Forever. And she's actually the first actor to be nominated for a Marvel movie for an Academy Award. We talked about her role in the Black Panther movies, and I was curious about the particular challenges of acting in a Marvel movie. For instance, do you have to act a lot in front of a green screen?

[Angela Bassett]

Well, here's the thing. We did very little on the green screen here. So the throne room. The throne room was there. Looking through the floor, maybe outside of the throne room. That's not there, but everything. And it's humongous. It's huge. Jore, there's something that I need to tell you about your brother. Mother, wait. We had trees and bushes, and we had water. We had water for, you know, yards and yards and yards and yards and yards, and Namor came up out of the water. I am not a woman who enjoys repeating herself. Who are you?

[Michael Shulman]

So part of what you. What you've done in this role as Queen Ramonda in the Black Panther films, you know, they take place in Africa, but in an imaginary country, Wakanda. How did you develop the accent for this, you know, imaginary nation? Did you have sort of accent coaching or.

[Angela Bassett]

Yeah.

[Michael Shulman]

How did you get into the accent?

[Angela Bassett]

Yeah, we absolutely did. We had the same coach, Ms. Beth, and she's there on set. And I would grab maybe three key phrases that I found on YouTube of Winnie Mandela or of certain South African women, maybe a worker. And before a scene, I would. I would recite them to get me, you know, in the space you say, he didn't. He didn't want to play around. He just wanted to marry me, you know, So I would. I would say it, you know, he didn't want to play around with me. I must say, he just wanted to marry me, you know, so that would sort of get me in the. In the zone. There was another attack on one of our outreach facilities. Proof of the involvement of a member state is being uploaded to your mobile devices as we speak. And as for the identity of the attackers.

[Michael Shulman]

Angela grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. She lived there with her younger sister and her mother, a social worker who had her own instinct for performing.

[Angela Bassett]

When we were young, my mother, my sister, we would often, you know, gather around the stereo and pick out a favorite song of the day. And mine might be Gladys Night, I Heard it through the Grapevine, you know, or Nancy Wilson. Guess who I saw today. You know, a real story. Guess who I saw today, my dear. I went in town to shop around for something new. Later, when I was in an enrichment program, Upward Bound at Eckerd College, you know, we would have talent night, so we would have Ms. Upward Bound or something like that. And you would have a dis. You would have to display a talent. And I would. I didn't. Well, I couldn't sing or tap dance, but I loved poetry, so I found poetry and recitation. I found an album of Ruby Dee's where she did, you know, the poems of Langston Hughes. So. And I heard it was more than just reciting the. The poems, the words. It was more than that. She put. She put something in there with it. To fling my arms wide in some place of the sun, to whirl and to dance till the white day is done. Then rested cool evening beneath a tall tree While night comes on gently dark. She stirred something in there with it. Some fire, some heat, some excitement. And I. It just. Bing. It just opened up my whole imagination. And so I. I copied her. I. I took about three of those poems and I strung them together and I did this very long poem. And it's. It's got this repetitive thing going on with it. You know, send for the. Send for this one, send for that one. And if they don't come, send for Robespierre. And it just goes on and on and on, and nobody comes send for me. And the audience just stood up and they clapped and they clapped and they responded. And my knees got very weak, and I was. And I was, you know, trying not to go down on them, you know, and it was just the first recognition that for me at 15, that drama, that theater, that words, that passion from one human being could move another. And then maybe I had something. Maybe I had a gift for it.

[Michael Shulman]

Well, you really spent your 20s as a working actor, a lot of it in New York. You were doing sort of parts in soap operas or sitcoms or what have you. What were you being cast as when you were just going out for roles in your 20s, trying to make it.

[Angela Bassett]

Mm. Graduated from school and maybe about a year later got cast as an understudy in a. In a bus. And we could bus and truck tour of this play called Colored People's Time, which was from the Negro. The Negro Ensemble Company. So this theater that done one of my theses on at Yale, this was an old play that they had done. They took it around to Syracuse and different little places like that. Sam Jackson was there. I remember, you know, L. Scott Caldwell on and on. Carol Maillard, who's a member of Sweet Honey in the Rock. So different, you know, just working actors in New York. There wasn't a lot of television in New York at that time. I think there was the Equalizer and the Cosby Show. I got a. I remember I got a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, and I was happy. Chicken. I like Kentucky Fried. Until about the fourth hour. Then I hated. I hate Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[Michael Shulman]

And were you. Did you have, like, day jobs throughout this time? Like, I read that you worked at a. As a receptionist at a beauty salon, Georgette Klinger Salon.

[Angela Bassett]

It was. It was a challenge because I. I have my. You know, my agent. They're sending you out and trying to do this thing that I've studied for, that I have these loans for. So I'm, you know, in this little hallway sitting next to other, you know, other ladies answering the phone and booking appointments for facials with Ms. Katrina and Ms. Jocelyn and Ms. Whoever from Europe. And I think they are one lady from Jamaica. But we would have literally 45 minutes off for lunch, you know, on the east side of New York on Madison Avenue, because I would run in, I would blurt out the audition and then try to run back uptown and crosstown. And then I would get reprimanded for being 10 minutes late or whatever. It was just so stressful. I knew I can't give my best in the auditions because I'm worried about getting back to work on time. So I heard about another job that came up, gave my notice at the. At the salon, and I went to Rockefeller center, one of those tall buildings, and start working for this one gentleman. He would send me to ap, Associated Press, to their photo departments. He said, oh, I need. I need slides on what's going on. You know, in this war, this situation or whatever. And I would go show him and say, oh, it's Friday and. And I need you to take these slides and fly them to DC to the office on the shuttle. Oh, okay. So I get to do that a couple times. That's exciting. And I said, oh, I have an audition. I have. When's your audition? I was like, it's at it. It's at 2. Well, it's 12. Do you need to go get ready? Go get ready. I just couldn't believe it. He knew that, you know, this was a means to an end, that here with him was not the end.

[David Remnick]

Angela Bassett speaking with the New Yorker's Michael Shulman. More in a moment.

[Michael Shulman]

Well, let's talk for a moment about what's Love Got to do with It. An absolutely incredible. From what I've read, it was a really difficult shoot. You were. The film was trying to open during Tina's world tour. And you've said you were working 20 hour days, you know, fractured of the hand. You were dancing in high heels. What was it like to actually. To film? And how did you cope with just the incredibly hard work and the pressure of making it?

[Angela Bassett]

Oh, I just remember thinking you might lose a battle, but we're trying to win a war. So you just kept going and going and going, and that's how you did it. You know, I would literally put on my earphones, put in the CD disc or whatever, I'm listening to her songs and listen to it till I fall asleep. I would listen to half a phrase over and over and over and over and over again and try to dissect it, you know, did she inhale? Did she exhale? Did she, you know? And I would. I would just study each and every detail within a phrase or half a phrase. Oh, there's something on my mind. I would just study the O part, you know, to get it perfectly right. Did she inhale before she said that? Did she exhale at the end of that? Somebody please, please tell me what's wrong. You're just a fool, you know you're in love what you say? I think I lost my voice a couple times. They would send someone, a doctor who would put some tubing up through the sinuses, which is very scary. And even though it wasn't my vocals you were hearing, I was certainly full out singing, getting up at 5am, working out with Michael Peters, who worked famously with Michael Jackson. I love that. And he would just put me through the paces for about 10 hours. I literally would eat standing up. I never sat at a Table and enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner. I was just so frazzled on black coffee, plain chicken breasts and white potatoes and green beans. That's literally all that I ate during that time working out. Everything hurt. Not a. You know, just shred it down. We would do a. Do a dance number and then say, okay, cut. All right, let's do it again. And I literally say, can an actor just have 60 seconds? Can actors have. Can we have 60 seconds? Because it felt as if you had swallowed a wool sweater. You're, like, just trying to get your breath at. At the end of it, you know, every now and then, I think you might like to hear something from us nice and easy. But there's just one thing. You see, we never, ever do nothing nice and easy.

[Michael Shulman]

And this role really just catapulted you into this echelon of stardom. You know, you did these two movies, Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, that are. You know, they're almost like a genre unto themselves. Like these movies that were being made sort of around you about the romantic lives of black women. And, I mean, what did it feel like to sort of be at the center of a kind of movie being made for, you know, for an audience that hadn't been catered to in that way? I mean, did your relationship with. Would the audience change?

[Angela Bassett]

It felt fantastic. Felt phenomenal. You know, we hadn't seen ourselves in. In that way. Especially Waiting to Exhale just for. For a black woman and four black women and their friends and their support system for each other. And they're classy, and they're beautiful, and they're. You know, and. And they have. I mean, they have a joie de vivre. And. And they. And they have pain and they're going through things. They think they're at the end and they'll never find love. They're being dogged out, you know, and we had.

[Michael Shulman]

It's an obvious precursor to Sex in the City.

[Angela Bassett]

There you go. And we led the. We led that moment. We led that movement and First Wives Club and all that that follow. Because before then, here we are. We are. Yes, sir, May I get you coffee? I'm the secretary. Or, you know, that sort of thing. But it felt wonderful that times had changed. And here were these movies that featured black women in complicated and loving relationships. And we could do it well. And it wasn't a joke. So I was very happy with that.

[Michael Shulman]

So I've noticed in the past couple years, Angela, you've been doing a bit more comedy. I mean, there was the episode you were in of Master of None, which, playing Lena Waite's mother in the Thanksgiving episode, which was an absolutely brilliant performance in a terrific episode of television. You were in a black lady sketch show and a sketch called Angela Bassett is the baddest bitch. And I'm wondering was, you know, did something about comedy appeal to you or about sort of winking to the audience about, you know, sort of your rep as this just sort of as this bad bitch that you wanted to embrace?

[Angela Bassett]

My whole thing was drama. I was just drama queen, Just sturm and drum. But off camera, my friends say I'm pretty funny. So I appreciate that that's the way they saw me and that I got that opportunity, you know.

[Michael Shulman]

Well, I mean, you were certainly from. Especially from the evidence of Master of None. You just have this incredible comic timing. I mean, there's a lot of incredible side eye acting in that episode. When you're daughter brings home like these sort of like floozy girlfriends over Thanksgiving. Absolutely hysterical.

[Angela Bassett]

Thank you. Yeah, just someone who's, you know, doesn't understand it completely, but loves her baby and wants the best for them. So what is the problem? Just annoyed that I even have to have this conversation with you. What conversation? I'm sitting here being normal. You acting like a crazy person. Ma, I'm gay. You what? I'm gay. And it was an important story to tell, an important moment. So I was so happy that I was able to be there. And the eyes that saw it and the change that happened for people who were able to speak to their parents or it spoke to them, you know, to have those moments in, you know, just from acting, whether it's what's love and people who've been in abusive relationships and got out of it, or whether it's Stella and those who thought, well, at 40, it's over. And they say, uh, evidently it's not. And they, you know, book their Jamaican or their Caribbean vacation and, you know, and get their groove back. To have an opportunity to speak to folk, that's been a great blessing.

[Michael Shulman]

Well, thank you first of all, for all these great performances over the years that have been really fun for me to revisit. And good luck at the Oscars. Do you know what you're gonna wear?

[Angela Bassett]

I don't. Michael Shulman. I don't. But I was looking at this frock I have on today. It's a lovely shade of purple, maybe. And purple is the color of royalty. Oh, it's such a responsibility.

[David Remnick]

The New Yorker's Michael Shulman speaking with Angela Bassett. She's nominated for an Oscar for her role in Black Panther Wakanda Forever. The conversation also appears in written form in the New Yorker's Interviews issue this week alongside Conversations with Cate Blanchett, Crossword Editor Will Shortz, and many more.

[Narrator/Producer]

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbes of Tune Yards, with additional music by Alexis Quadrato and Louis Mitchell. This episode was produced by Max Balton, Breda Greene, Adam Howard Kalalea, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell and Ingofen Mputabuele, with guidance from Emily Botine and assistance from Harrison Keithlein and Meher Bhatia. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Tsarina Endowment Fund.