Actress Angela Bassett attends The Cinema Society with Roger Dubuis and Grey Goose screening of FilmDistrict’s “Olympus Has Fallen” at Tribeca Grand Hotel on March 11, 2013 in New York City
*Angela Bassett, in theaters later this month with “Olympus Has Fallen,” could’ve also returned to Broadway later this month opposite the legendary Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful.
As previously reported, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Williams, Condola Rashad and Tom Wopat co-star in the revival directed by Michael Wilson and set to begin a 14-week limited engagement at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Tuesday, April 23. (Previews begin Saturday, March 30.)
The story centers on Carrie Watts (Tyson), who lives in a cramped Houston apartment with her mild-mannered son (Gooding Jr.) and his opinionated wife (Williams), dreaming of a return to her home in the small Gulf Coast town of Bountiful, where she grew up and raised her family. Feeling like an imposition and chafing under her daughter-in-law’s watchful eye, she steals away with her latest pension check and heads home in the journey of a lifetime.
Bassett, who has twin 7-year-olds with actor-hubby Courtney B. Vance, was originally asked to play Carrie’s outspoken daughter-in-law, but scheduling conflicts forced her to turn down the role, “which I probably will regret one day because of course [Cicely Tyson] is one of my sheroes,” Bassett told us during interviews for “Olympus Has Fallen” in New York. “I consider her like a mentor, a mother figure in terms of actress to actress, but I just couldn’t make it work.”
Below, Bassett explains what she was doing at the time that prevented her from taking the role.
“Olympus Has Fallen” opens nationwide on March 22. Bassett plays the Secret Service Director during a terrorist attack on Washington D.C. Watch the trailer below.
Angela Bassett, Cicily Tyson, Queen Latifa, Cathy Bates and if they were still with us, Joan Crawford and Betty Davis could play Donald Duck in a film or play and I would pay to see them. There a few others, but they are the cream of the crop.
I feel the same way about the actresses mentioned above. But I would add on Katharine Hepburn, Diahann Carroll, and Alfre Woodard.
Oh, hell yeah, Ms. Dee. Know ya’ right!