“Along the way there was great music”: The movie that allowed Angela Bassett to feel seen

Posted On October 22, 2024October 22, 2024

Every actor, as every person, has a favourite movie, one that they find incredibly well made with a great storyline and brilliant performances. But then there are the movies that make us feel truly seen and represented, and sometimes that can be even more important than our favourites. For Angela Bassett, there are a few films that made her feel seen, but one, in particular, is the first that allowed her to feel represented.

Having received an Honorary Academy Award in 2023, Bassett talked to the Academy about her biggest influences. Tasked with picking the first feel that made her feel seen, the critically acclaimed actor picked Cooley High. A 1975 coming-of-age drama directed by William Schultz, it follows two best friends through the parties, love triangles and endless tribulations of senior year at high school. 

For Bassett, it made her feel seen because it was a “coming-of-age story of these talented young people who had dreams of going places, of doing something with their talent, and, of course, reckless decisions… being in the wrong place at the wrong time”. This is an unsurprising pick, given the film’s praise for changing the landscape of Black film in the 1970s. 

Up until that point, Black exploitation films had been the main form of Black cinema in the 1970s with race films of the 1940s and 1960s preceding that. Many saw it as moving away from the strong sexual and violent elements of those films, instead choosing to focus on the vanished innocence and beauty of teenage life in the black community. Cooley High is now considered to be a classic of Black cinema and a touchstone for directors like Spike Lee. It was even considered “culturally, historically or aesthetically” important enough to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

But for Bassett, it’s much more simple than even that. For her, the film depicts “just great-looking brown boys and girls having a good time. And doing the things that I did, like house parties and falling in love”, which is more important to her than its harrowing ending or culturally significant effect on cinema.

This is often the case for the films that make us feel seen. It might not be their politically important themes or their culture-defining moments, but simply their ability to accurately depict the everyday minutiae of our lives. Something as simple as aligned musical choices can be incredibly significant to an individual and Cooley High’s soundtrack of Motown hits was also invaluable in helping Bassett feel seen. She explains, “along the way there was great music, music of the time”. This simple feature can be incredibly important for helping a film to be indicative of its time and relevant to those it’s attempting to represent. 

It’s also interesting to note that the Golden Globe-winning star first gained recognition for her performance in Boyz n the Hood, a film that was directly inspired by Cooley High and went on to be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. This demonstrates the importance of representation for young people, as often, our first experiences of feeling seen can go on to inspire us in life-changing ways.

Related Topics