If you had the pleasure of watching the BAFTA Awards last week or have simply opened your TikTok anytime since you may be aware of Arianna Debose’s impromptu Rap performance she performed to announce the various female award nominees present at the ceremony. The original song and the quirky lyrics have been circulating on social media lately, and people cannot get Debose’s performance out of their heads. One of Debose’s particularly amusing call-outs “Angela Bassett did the thing!” has been recreated and mimicked by many creators on TikTok and elsewhere. But besides the lyric’s comedic value and the fact that I can’t stop repeating it, I also found myself needing to know more about what exactly “the thing” was that Angela Bassett did that prompted Debose’s mention.
Angela Bassett has been a showstopping actress since the 80s but hit her breakthrough role in the 1993 film What’s Love Got To Do With It when she played Tina Turner in the biopic that landed her a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination. Her most recent project was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever where her strong and emotional role in the film as Queen Ramanda received much acclaim. According to the Los Angeles Times “Bassett has already picked up a number of accolades for her portrayal of Queen Ramanda this award season”, these awards being a Golden Globe as well as A Critics Choice Award for supporting actress. It isn’t simply her success in the supporting actress category that the actress is receiving praise for, but her groundbreaking oscar nomination that stands out, particularly due to the lack of acting nominations Marvel has accumulated since its conception in 2008. A Forbes Article stated that “Bassett becomes the first actor in an MCU release to receive an Oscar acting nomination for her supporting performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
No matter what the outcome of Angela Bassett’s oscar nomination is, she has further cemented herself as an incredibly talented actress whose performance strikes critics and casual moviegoers alike with her intense but vulnerable performance of a grieving mother and monarch. As I write this at the end of February, Black History Month, approaching March, Women’s History Month, we can’t ignore Bassett’s true contribution not only in the roles in her films but in society as an African American woman proficient and excelling in her career path. Despite Arianna Debose’s unconventional appreciation of Basset’s award nominations, her celebration of Bassett’s award nominations was not without merit and Angela Bassett really did do the thing!