Angela Bassett says she was “gobsmacked” she didn’t win an Oscar for Wakanda Forever

Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on March 8, 2024

With the Academy Awards approaching Sunday, Angela Bassett‘s recalling her feelings of disappointment when she realized she hadn’t won an Oscar for her role as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

In a conversation with Oprah on the OWN Spotlight series, Bassett revealed she was “gobsmacked” to walk away with no Oscar for the role, especially after it earned a Globe Globe and Critics Choice Award.

“I was gobsmacked! I was,” Bassett said. “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.”

She noted it was important for her to move on gracefully despite the loss “for myself and for my children, who were there with me.”

“There are going to be these moments of disappointment that you’ll experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them?” she continued. “We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway.”

Bassett reprised her role as Queen Ramonda in Wakanda Forever after appearing in the original Black Panther in 2018. She revealed she agreed to play the character without one look at the script.

“Some of these places are secretive with the scripts, but [director Ryan Coogler] said, ‘Queen,'” Bassett recalled. “For years I had been saying … when they ask what else you want to play, I’d say, ‘I want to play a queen.’ I manifested it, evidently.”

The role of Queen Ramonda made Bassett the first person to be nominated for an Academy Award for a Marvel movie.