Celebrity News March 06, 2023
Courtney B. Vance Says It’s Angela Bassett’s Time in the Spotlight (Exclusive)
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Over the weekend, Courtney B. Vance was recognized at the American Black Film Festival Honors.
“Extra’s” Melvin Robert spoke with Vance, who gushed about his wife Angela Bassett.
Angela is having quite a successful award season, and Courtney has been more than happy to shine the light on her. He said, “I know who she is… She is not just mine, she is everybody’s. The power in sharing, the power in humility, the power in sacrifice is amazing, and I recognize and I know what it is. It’s her time. She has been waiting for this for 29 years. I am not getting in the way of that. I’m like, ‘Baby, what you need me to do, where you need me to be?’ It has been 29 years — what did she do for those first 10 years, how did she sustain? Other people would have just given up.”
Courtney was being honored with the Excellence in the Arts Award. He commented, “It’s celebrating Blackness, celebrating what it takes to sustain not only greatness but just sustain in the face of sometimes darkness. What did our people do when there was no light…? What did our parents do when you just got shot down in front of your children by white folk that spit on you, figuratively and literally…? I use that history to let me know today I can endure some stuff.”
When asked how he’s been able to sustain all these years, Vance answered, “One minute they love you… the next minute… they on to the next person… You have to gain an understanding [that] it’s not personal… How you gonna make a life when they not calling your name? That’s why I celebrate us. For the longest time, they didn’t call our names… We are the ultimate survivors.”
Courtney also shared his two cents on Chris Rock’s live special “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” in which he addresses the infamous Oscars slap involving Will Smith. He said, “It was a very traumatic thing… As a Hollywood community, it was a very big thing, and it’s not going to go away just ‘cause we want it to go away. It’s gonna take time. We got to let some time go by so that we can forgive, forget, move on and let them get back to work… It was traumatic… Billion and a half — how many people watching? That shouldn’t happen, and I know one thing — it ain’t gonna happen like that again.”
