Imagine your wife of 27 years being heralded as one of the top actresses in Hollywood for over three decades, including carrying the lead in the second highest-grossing film of 2022, and still never winning an Oscar at the Academy Awards.
Courtney B. Vance doesn’t have to. This is the reality lived day in and day out by the husband of actress Angela Bassett.
The “Preacher’s Wife” actor recently shared that while he is “grateful” that his wife was awarded an honorary Oscar earlier this year, he believes the Academy voters missed the mark twice when it came to Bassett and robbed her of the chance to be celebrated by her fans worldwide.
Vance described his wife as a “very shy” woman who would “never toot her own horn,” about her skill set and her just due. But as the support system that has been by her side since 1997, he knows the impact of those losses and wishes his wife’s work was openly celebrated.
“The honorary Oscar was a wonderful night, but I flashed back to 30 years ago when they didn’t call her name, and then when they didn’t call her name last March,” he said in an interview for Bassett’s cover issue of People magazine.
He added that the honorary Oscar “was an opportunity for her to stand up there” and that “a lot of people saw it,” but, “Not the billion people that would see it at the Oscars.”
In January 2024, Bassett received her only Oscar from the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was a special honor given to those who have made a significant contribution to the film and television industry.
The “Waiting to Exhale” actress accepted her award with a 15-minute speech, saying, “Thank you, thank you to the Academy and the Board of Governors for this award. I have considered acting my calling and not just my career. I do this work because I find it meaningful and I hope in some way that it makes a difference and has an impact.
Adding graciously, “To be recognized in this way for what I love doing is truly wonderful and I am beyond grateful.”
Bassett also mentioned that she was only the second Black actress in the history of the Academy to receive an honorary Oscar, the first one being her mentor and soror, Cecily Tyson, who won hers in 2018.
There have only been ten Black actresses to win an Oscar. Read that again. Ten Black actresses. In almost 100 years.
— Aliya Langley (@aliyalangley) January 11, 2024
Furthermore –
There have only been ten Black actors to win an Oscar (two of them have won one twice, so twelve wins total). In almost 100 years.
Another historical fact is that out of the 95 years of giving out the Oscar, only one Black woman has received Best Actress from the Academy. That distinction is held solely by Halle Berry, who won the award in 2002 for her role in “Monster’s Ball.”
Bassett had been nominated twice before. Her first nomination was for “Best Actress In A Leading Role” for her role as Tina Turner in the biopic, “What’s Love Got to Do with It” in 1994. Her second nomination was for “Best Supporting Actress” in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in 2023. Both nominations resulted in her walking away empty-handed.
Never a poor sport, the Yale graduate has even comforted others when their names were not called. Bassett recalled the time, she sat next to Austin Butler, who was nominated for his role in the movie “Elvis.”
“On the evening of the Oscars, with Austin seated next to me, I understood intimately what he felt when it was time to learn if he would climb those stairs to the stage,” Bassett wrote in a piece for Time. “So, I took his hand and held it softly as the winner was announced. Although his name wasn’t called, Austin is no less a winner.”
She continued, “The time had come for Austin to say goodbye to ‘Elvis’ as he began to embrace an infinite universe of possibilities as an actor. I can’t wait to see what he brings us next.”
