Angela Bassett keeps inspiring us to reach for excellence
We could listen to Angela Bassett talk about anything, but here are a few of our favorites from her inspirational speeches.
Whenever award-winning actress Angela Bassett gets up to give a speech, we always know that it’s going to be amazing. She’s been killing it with advice to others who want to reach for excellence. She’s never afraid to tell it like it is, and when she opens her mouth, we usually want to rewatch her words of wisdom.
Here are some of theGrio’s favorite moments from Bassett’s recent motivational speeches, the ones that had us taking notes.
Encouraging creatives to make their voices heard
In 2020, Bassett appeared over Zoom at Chanel and Tribeca Film Institute’s annual Through Her Lens event. She spoke not only about the need for diverse voices to be involved in telling stories at every level but noted that those who have already found success have an obligation to lift up others yearning for the same opportunities.
“Know that your voice is needed and necessary. And just go in with the most confidence that you can garner,” she told creatives at the event.
And really, when Bassett herself is telling you that your voice is necessary, what else is there to do but rise to the occasion?
She also told them: “Always be ready, just keep working where you can. Bloom where you’re planted and as much as you can with the resources that you have at the time, because someone’s always watching. There are those who pay attention. Someone’s watching when you least expect it, so don’t grow weary.”
Bassett said that those who “are empowered and have an option” to offer opportunity need to step up and lift those who come behind them, and we know that she walks the walk when it comes to advocating for creatives to have a voice. But we also like her point that people are watching. It’s not just that someone who has means might spot your talent; it’s that those in the next generation of creatives are also watching to see what we do with our voices and our creativity.
Creatives who grew up watching the likes of Bassett, then, can inspire others without even realizing it, the same way she’s inspired us. And that thought itself is good motivation to keep going.
Rocking our world at Black Girls Rock
Of course, if we’re talking about motivational speeches from Angela Bassett, there’s no way we can’t include the speech she gave at Black Girls Rock in 2019, when she received the Icon Award. It is amazing and you should listen to it in its entirety. But here are a few good quotes.
“I’m often asked in interviews if my portraying smart, strong women throughout my career has been on purpose. … We all have purpose, even if we’re still striving to understand what that is.” She added that when she was just starting out, “survival figured into the equation, but not so much that I was ever willing to compromise my integrity.”
She went on to speak about the women in her life and her family who had inspired her to keep going and promised those listening to her that they were “destined for greatness” no matter what obstacles they had to face along the way.
And then, she dropped one of our favorite Bassett quotes:
“So when you’re told you’re not good enough, you tell them, not only am I good enough, I’m more than enough. When they say send her back home, you tell them I am home. I am the foundation of what we call home. When they tell you that you’re angry or nasty, you tell them that they’re mistaken. This is me. This is me being resolute and standing firmly in my truth. And when they say you’re not beautiful, you tell them that you are the descendant of royalty.”
When the world can sometimes seem overwhelming, tenacity can get us through. And when no one else believes in us, we’ve got to believe in ourselves. But we don’t have to do it alone, no matter how much grit we have. Bassett ended her speech with a call for unity and for power, and honestly, we can’t stop rewatching.
“We have much work to do and, together, we are unstoppable. Always remember that our voices, the very power that we hold individually, and all of us collectively, it does matter. Now is not the time to be silent. Find your purpose, pursue it relentlessly, passionately and loudly. Be persistent and win,” she said.
We can do so much more when we stand together. That’s why community is so important, and that’s why, as Bassett knows so well, once we’ve made it, we need to turn around and offer a hand up to those who are still struggling. That’s where our power comes from.
Seriously, we could listen to Angela Bassett all day.
A call to pave the way for future generations
In 2022 at Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards, where Bassett received the Lifetime Achievement Award, she called for women to lift up the next generation, the way the women who came before us did.
“I challenge us all,” she said, to consider “our contributions to pushing humanity forward.” She urged the audience to ask themselves: “What will you do to make sure that future generations of girls and women exist in a world that is one of equality and equity?”
We can’t be still; we can’t go backward. But if pushing ahead seems like a daunting task, Bassett says we’re up for the task.
“And when you’re told that you can’t or you won’t, that it’s impossible, when doubt or fear begins to take hold of your spirit, let determination cover your body like a quilt on a winter night. And press forward. The world needs you, quite possibly more than ever before. The world has always needed us,” she said.
Addressing the need for more diverse stories
Bassett knows how to use a platform once it’s been given to her, and we’ve seen that with the success of the “Black Panther” franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This 2022 Black-led project was a huge box office hit, and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” has been bringing everyone involved to the awards stages.
“We showed the world what Black unity, leadership, and love looks like beyond, behind and in front of the camera,” she told the world at the Golden Globes this year.
She was also candid at this year’s African American Film Critics Association Awards, telling everyone there that she knows the power of stories. She is careful in the roles she chooses specifically because stories have the power to humanize Black women, and she wants to use that power to advocate for diversity.
“Every role that I have taken on has been to break through those perceptions of us as Black women, to show our humanity, to tell the diversity of our stories, and to share the complexities of what it means to be Black and woman,” she said.
She’s not wrong. Just take a look at her career, and you’ll see the depth of the human experience.
Bassett went on to talk about her legacy, saying: “I hope that the work I’ve done and continue to do in my career will one day be the bright light at the end of a long tunnel for someone who needs the confidence and comfort in knowing that, by remaining true to your purpose, you’re showing the world who you are, rather the world deciding for you.”
She can rest easy knowing that she is definitely that “bright light” for the rest of us. We hope that we can live up to the standard she has set. We hope that we can turn our successes into opportunities for others to follow in our footsteps, and we hope that we will always reach out to each other to inspire and uplift one another.
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