Angela Bassett recently talked with Town & Country magazine about how she felt she was “deserving” of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Bassett was nominated in 2023 but lost to Jamie Lee Curtis for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Her reaction to Curtis’ win went viral on social media afterward.

“I found it interesting,” said Bassett of the loss and the reaction afterward. “Interesting that I wouldn’t be allowed to be disappointed at an outcome where I thought I was deserving.”

“I love applauding people,” she continued. “But in that moment … No, I have put in: put in the time, put in good work over time. I didn’t think that was a gift. I thought it was a given.”

Bassett earned critical acclaim for her role as Queen Ramonda in Wakanda Forever, which made her the first actor from a Marvel movie nominated for an Oscar. Before the Academy Awards, Bassett won supporting actress awards at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. The race remained open after Curtis won the SAG award and Kerry Condon won the BAFTA for The Banshees of Inisherin. Curtis prevailed in the Oscar race.

“I was gob-smacked! I was,” Bassett told Oprah last year about losing the award. “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.”

At the time, Bassett said that handling the Oscar loss with grace was of the utmost importance “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 added. “We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway.”

Before her Wakanda Forever nomination, Bassett had only been nominated for an Oscar once before. She competed for best actress playing Tina Turner in 1994’s What’s Love Got to Do With It, which won her a Golden Globe. That year, Holly Hunter won the Oscar for The Piano. Bassett was named a recipient of an Honorary Oscar in 2024 following the loss in 2023.