A post shared by Angela Bassett (@im.angelabassett)

Angela Bassett is promoting her role on 911, which returns for season four this week. I watched the first season of 911: Lone Star but haven’t seen more than a couple episodes of the original series. That may have to change as I loved how they were talking it up on the Podjiba podcast last year. It sounds bonkers in a good way. Angela was on The Tonight Show, and she and Jimmy bonded over the fact that they once shared a ride home from the Oscars. It was really cute. She talked a little about her teenage twins, son Slater and daughter Bronwyn, whom she shares with her husband of 23 years, Courtney B. Vance. She said they mostly say in their rooms in lockdown. Angela didn’t mention this but her kids go to public school, which isn’t usually the case for the children of celebrities. Here’s some of what she said. She also told the story of how Chadwick Boseman was the student assigned to accompany her when she got her honorary doctorate from Howard University. This wasn’t the first time she’s mentioned that, but it’s a sweet story and I wanted to include it.

On how her kids are doing
They are going to be 15 in just a couple of weeks. They’re doing good. They spend an extraordinary amount of time in their rooms. They did before quarantine but now with that in-school zooming even more so. I kind of hardly see them except when we have dinner, maybe breakfast. I think they’re cool with that.

On realizing during Black Panther promotion that she had met Chadwick Boseman years ago
I was so honored to receive an honorary doctorate from Howard University. I go there it’s a great time. I get this movie Black Panther. I’m sitting next to Chadwick every morning. We share the same makeup trailer. The night of the glorious premiere. [I] said hello [to Chadwick]. He whispers in my ear ‘when you got your honorary degree, I was the student that escorted you throughout that day.’ I was just so blown away. I couldn’t believe that he held that back from me while we were shooting, the entire time.

[From The Tonight Show on YouTube]

Angela always impresses me when I see her. She’s goals and is aging like fine wine. I love that story about Chadwick waiting until the premiere to tell her that he was the student she was with at Howard! So many people say he was humble and low key like that. I bet he didn’t plan it out so much as he just forgot about it until that moment.

As for her kids staying in their rooms, that sounds typical. My son turned 16 in lockdown. At first we were spending a lot of time together but we got a bit sick of each other. It’s been hard to be stuck in the house so long. Plus he’s still learning how to drive. We get along great but we do retreat to our separate areas most of the time. Now we’re just waiting to get vaccinated, which seems so close yet so far away. He also Zooms and is on Discord a lot with his friends, which is nice to hear. I don’t worry about him being isolated as much since he seems very connected with everyone. If he was seeing them in person I would worry a lot more.

Here’s that interview!

A post shared by Angela Bassett (@im.angelabassett)

A post shared by Angela Bassett (@im.angelabassett)

A post shared by Angela Bassett (@im.angelabassett)