Angela Bassett has a presence that feels warm and inviting but also demands your respect. The actor moves like true Hollywood royalty, knowing her worth, dedicated to her craft and remaining confident yet humble throughout a decades-spanning, award-winning career.

On a Tuesday in January, Bassett would wake up just before 3:45 a.m., unable to fall back asleep. In just two hours, she would hear Riz Ahmed announce her name as a best supporting actress Oscar nominee for her performance as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

Bassett remembers turning to wake up her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance (“I couldn’t experience that alone and then tell him about it later,” she said), and immediately receiving a text from fellow Oscar nominee and award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter.

“It was the first nomination and the first name,” she recalled. “I gasped, and that was a shock, that sort of ‘Whoa! Already? You know, give a girl a minute.’”