Angela Bassett becomes Marvel Cinematic Universe star

25/1/2023 6:18

        Angela Bassett made
        history on Tuesday as the first Marvel Cinematic Universe star
        to be nominated for an acting Oscar for her “Black Panther:
        Wakanda Forever” role as Queen Ramonda.
        
        After being nominated in the best supporting actress
        category, Bassett paid tribute to the character she portrayed.
        
        “Wakanda Forever’s Queen Ramonda is a character that touched
        my spirit because she is a mother and a leader who must care for
        her grieving nation as much as she cares for her family in
        mourning,” Bassett said in a statement.
        
        Bassett is a favorite to win at the Oscar ceremony on March
        12, having already secured a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice
        award for the role. The film secured four other nominations,
        including for visual effects and costume design.
        
        Bassett was previously nominated for a best actress Academy
        Award for her portrayal as Tina Turner in the biopic "What's
        Love Got To Do With It."
        
        Disney’s "Black Panther” sequel sold around $330 million in
        tickets and set a November record in the United States and
        Canada.
        
        In the sequel, the character King T'Challa dies at the
        opening, a script change made after actor Chadwick Boseman
        passed away from cancer in 2020 just before filming started.
        
        Marvel decided not to recast T'Challa. Instead, writer and
        director Ryan Coogler crafted a script that put female
        characters at the forefront.
        
        “Ramonda is a love letter that reflects and acknowledges
        what we women do everyday,” Bassett said.
        
        Her nomination challenges a long-held belief by many big
        names in Hollywood, including directors Martin Scorsese and
        Quentin Tarantino, that Marvel films are not real cinema.
        
        “They seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are
        to movies as I’ve known and loved them throughout my life, and
        that in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema,” Scorsese wrote
        in the New York Times in 2019, igniting backlash.
        
        Despite that kind of criticism, the first “Black Panther”
        won three Academy Awards after garnering seven Oscar nominations
        in 2019, including the first Best Picture nomination for a super
        hero movie.
        
        Bassett is joined in the category by fellow nominees Hong
        Chau from “The Whale,” Kerry Condon from “The Banshees of
        Inisherin,” and Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu from
        “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”