Angela Bassett Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Waiting to Exhale turns 30 this year, and Angela Bassett has nothing but fond memories of filming the beloved rom-com.
“Waiting to Exhale, four incredible women, an incredible time in a very, very hot place,” Bassett, 66, recalled while chatting exclusively with Us Weekly at the New York City premiere of her new miniseries, Zero Day, on Tuesday, February 18. “We were in Arizona filming that. [Director] Forest Whitaker, we were just in love with him. And he [had] just the right temperament and appreciation of who we were as women. I mean, the love and the respect, the regard, the care that he took with each of us and all of us.”
Released in December 1995, Waiting to Exhale followed the romantic trials and tribulations of a group of friends, played by Bassett, Whitney Houston, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon. The four women’s strong onscreen bond is something Bassett told Us translated beyond and away from the cameras, too.
“The friendship, the bonding we were able to do before we began shooting, whether it was bowling or playing cards,” she shared. “Being around the campfire at the end, and truly, by the end of that shoot, being in love with each other and having a connection that would always be.”
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Angela Bassett celebrated her honorary Oscar win by thanking the Black actresses whose footsteps she followed. “When acting took hold of my heart, there was not a clear path to what success could look like because there were so few, so few Black actresses prominent in television or film,” Bassett, 65, said […]
A sequel to the film was reportedly in the works but was canceled following Houston’s death at age 48 in February 2012. “When we spoke last she had just finished Sparkle and she told me how excited she was to start production on Waiting to Exhale 2 with Angela, Lela and myself,” Devine told MTV News at the time.
Bassett, for her part, told the outlet she was “so thankful to have been enveloped by the warmth of Whitney’s great talents.”
Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, and Lela Rochon in “Waiting To Exhale.” Cover Images
“Whatever her burdens, she has at last laid them down and picked up instead a crown,” she continued at the time. “For truly, she was and will ever be for us — who were so captivated by her strengths — unparalleled.”
Houston is one of the many iconic stars Bassett has worked with over the years. In the new show Zero Day, the 9-1-1 star reunites with Robert De Niro for the first time since they filmed 2001’s The Score.
“[It’s] just amazing,” she told Us of getting to work with De Niro, 81, again. “I mean, a first time? OK, that’s more than a favor. But a second time? Yeah, yeah. It’s not fair. It’s favor, as they say.”
In the political thriller series, Bassett stars as President Evelyn Mitchell, who recruits a former president (De Niro) to track down the perpetrators behind a devastating cyber-attack. To play the president of the United States, Bassett drew inspiration from real-life political figures.
Angela Bassett and Whitney Houston Cover Images
“It was absolutely Kamala Harris, our vice president. And we filmed this before the run for president, but I was very proud to see her have the opportunity to introduce herself to the world in that moment,” she shared. “Also, Shirley Chisholm, who was the first African American political activist woman to make a run for the presidency. … [She] paved the way for Hillary Clinton to do the same years later.”
Bassett added, “Of course, there’s Barbara Jordan and Stacey Abrams and Sojourner Truth. So, [I had] quite a North star. North stars.”
Zero Day premieres on Netflix Thursday, February 20.
With reporting by Nikaline McCarley
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