Superhero films are rarely nominated for Academy Awards outside of the technical categories, but the Black Panther films have been an exception. This is especially for Angela Bassett's 2023 nomination for Best Supporting Actress Oscar, which she received for her role as Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. 

However, Bassett lost the golden award to Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All At Once that evening. In a recent interview, she described her reaction to that event, putting it as “a supreme disappointment.”

Angela Bassett’s reaction to her Oscar loss

In a conversation with Oprah Winfrey for OWN, Bassett reflected on her 2023 Oscar loss and how she tried very hard to handle it elegantly. The actress said, “I was gobsmacked! I was. I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.”

Before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Bassett had received just one Oscar nomination in 1994. She was nominated in the Best Actress category and lost to Holly Hunter that year. As part of this year's Oscar season, Bassett was declared the recipient of an Honorary Award for her work following her 2023 loss.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s box office performance 

Despite earning a very respectable $880 million or more at the worldwide box office, Wakanda Forever was unable to surpass its predecessor's $1 billion mark. It succeeded in surpassing films like Captain Marvel and the original Wonder Woman to become the highest-grossing female-led superhero picture in the history of the American box office.