Angela Bassett recently spoke about her career at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 9th. During the conversation with Roger Durling, the festival’s executive director, Bassett discussed her role as Katherine Jackson in the 1992 miniseries “The Jacksons: An American Dream.”
Bassett revealed that when she was auditioning for the role, her agents advised her not to take it due to the allegations about Michael Jackson in the press. However, as a lifelong fan of the Jacksons, Bassett was determined to play the role of the matriarch of the family. She believed that no matter what the allegations were, the one thing that was true was the Jackson children’s love and reverence for their mother. Bassett wanted to portray that love and reverence for motherhood in her performance.
Despite the initial doubts, Bassett’s portrayal of Katherine Jackson is still one of her most memorable and popular performances. It even served as the basis for a viral impression by her co-star Keke Palmer last year (click here). Bassett credited her experience making “The Jacksons: An American Dream” as an inspiration for her performance as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It?,” which earned her first Oscar nomination in 1994.
Bassett spoke highly of the child actors who played the Jacksons in the miniseries, stating that they were her teachers in what she had to do later as Tina Turner. The child actors had to sing, dance, act, and go to school, and they did it all with magnificent talent.
And in speaking of her role as Tina Turner, the actress also delved into the challenging experience of shooting the 1993 biopic. Despite being nominated for an Oscar nearly 20 years ago, Bassett revealed that the production was more grueling than people realized.
Bassett recounted doing scenes repeatedly and feeling physically strained during the concert scenes. She also described the challenges of being directed by Brian Gibson, who would push the actors to keep going without much rest.
“We would do scenes over and over and over again,” said the actress. “Those concert scenes, literally you feel like you have a sweater in your throat after performing, and we would do it [again] from top to bottom.”
Though she is now able to joke about it, Bassett did not mince words describing the challenges that came with being directed by English filmmaker Brian Gibson. “He’d say, ‘OK, let’s do it again.’ I was like, ‘Can an actor have a moment? Just 60 seconds, a minute, please, just to catch our breath.’”
The actress also talked about her collaboration with fellow 2023 Oscar nominee Ruth E. Carter, who was the costume designer for both “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Bassett shared how Gibson would often criticize the costumes, causing stress for the cast and crew.
“Every day we came to the set, [Gibson said] it was the wrong costume. The costume wasn’t going to work. So every day, the day started off like, ‘Oh, it’s not going to work.’” She and Carter “tried to get smart and take pictures. ‘What about this as a costume for tomorrow?’ ‘Oh, yeah, that’s good.’ ‘OK, great.’ Show up in the morning, ‘Ugh, horrible costume,’” said the star.