What kind of shenanigans occurred to make Angela Bassett now the frontrunner to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar? You be the judge.
There have been a handful of well-deserved supporting actress performances in 2022. If Bassett’s nothingburger work in “Wakanda Forever” actually wins, what a joke that would be.
After “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was screened, I had completely forgotten about Bassett’s performance as Queen Ramonda. Now we have these influential pundits predicting her to win the Oscar?!
Fact of the matter is that critics, pundits, the powers-that-be, were all banging their drums by launching a “Bassett for Oscar” campaign even before anyone had seen “Wakanda Forever.” You were already hearing whispers that Bassett’s role could be the first time an acting performance from an MCU movie ever got Oscar-nominated.
When the film had finally screened, I was convinced she wouldn’t figure into the Oscar conversation, but pundits like Anne Thompson, Clayton Davis and Scott Feinberg kept Bassett at the top of their Best Supporting Actress predictions, for months on end.
This is another great example of why the Andrea Riseborough grassroots campaign matters — it takes away the power from politically-motivated pundits, critics, big studios and back into the hands of actual voters. Of course, the Academy doesn’t seem to approve.
You don’t get a Bassett Oscar win, let alone a nomination, without the Disney machine pumping millions of dollars into the campaign, not to mention pundits setting up the “narrative” after sipping a few martinis at the “Wakanda Forever” after-party and luncheons.
If it were up to me, Kerry Condon would be the runaway winner of this otherwise very weak Oscar category.
