Angela Bassett got her medical license in the new movie “Green Lantern” as she dives into the roll of Dr. Amanda Waller.
As “Green Lantern” throws its name in the ring for this year’s top summer blockbuster, we sat out to find out more about one of its biggest stars, Angela Bassett.
Check out our exclusive interview.
How “Green Lantern” savvy were you before going into this film?
I would say not very, I think I had to get up to speed and fortunately I had a girlfriend that was into “Green Lantern” and she got me some little figurines and stuff like that. And then my husband met one of the illustrators from like 30 years ago who drew for “Green Lantern.” I still have the sketch he drew for me, he said ‘Congratulations on being the Wall,’ I was very excited about that.
Dr. Amanda Waller is a pretty big deal in the world. Is there any pressure to live up to the expectation of the hardcore comic book fans?
It’s a little pressure because you want to get it right, they don’t play with their comic icons. Don’t mess it up, it’s great the way that it is, so it was a little pressure, and I think we changed a little bit of it because Amanda was a little big, so she lost a little weight. She’s healthier.
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Ryan Reynolds is so wonderful and such a nice guy. Why do you think he made a perfect “Green Lantern”?
Very heroic in this film, very heroic. And who could have imagined, but he just has this wonderful, off-the-cuff sense of humor as if he doesn’t take himself so serious and that he has a sort of relaxness about him and genuineness and I think that all came together along with this amazing physique that he developed along the way. It was just a perfect combination and very believable in this huge and massive world.
What was your reaction when you first saw the movie?
I jumped a couple of times, you know stuff that you’re not waiting for or where it’s going to happen. Then looking at these characters, the other Green Lanterns, and how they came up with the way that there going to look and be. To make the world and when life gets sucked out of one, that was kind of scary.
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You’ve given us so many amazing performances for many years. Back when you were just starting out, was there an actor or great movie that sparked, ‘I want to do this for a living’?
Growing up, I think Bette Davis. I loved watching Bette Davis, anything that she was in was just over the top. Feet planted so into the earth, yet over the top. And grand and larger than life. And of course whenever I would get a chance to see Cecily Tyson, whether it was the autobiography of Ms. Jane Pitman or Harriet Tubman, or whatever she was in, she would be so heroic and grand, and with so much dignity. I think between those two, and then on stage, seeing James Earl Jones and being captivated by his stage performance. Those were moments that peeked my interest.
What is it that drives you when you get a script that you’re interested in now? Is it the director, is it the people that you work with?
It still starts with the role. You hope that when you open that cover and get past that title page and you’re just so hopeful it’ll grab your attention and grab your interest and your imagination. And that your imagination starts working and you can see yourself in this world and here these thoughts and these ideas how you want to best portray that and to deliver that.
