Angela Bassett thought ‘Soul’ had presented her with a big role and feels the pressure from it.
The 62-year-old actress who plays jazz saxophonist Dorothea Williams in the upcoming Pixar movie has opened up about the blockbuster, which also features Jamie Foxx voicing Joe Gardner as the first Black character to front a film for the studio.
Bassett told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “I don’t know if it was pitched to me that way, but I was certainly intrigued with the title – ‘Soul’. I thought, ‘Well, that’s some big shoes to fill.’
“Because I grew up with soul brothers, soul music, soul food. It’s about comfort. The connotation is big and expansive.
“And I don’t know to what degree I was aware of it till I actually sat and saw the film and was like, ‘Oh!’
“I really didn’t get it until I saw it in its entirety, because I only got a scene or two. I only got Dorothea’s scenes. I wasn’t privy to the whole of the script as you can imagine.”
In the movie, music teacher Joe ends up in the Great Before after his soul is separated from his body, and he needs to help soul-in-training 22 (Tina Fey) before he can return to Earth.
Meanwhile, ‘Black Panther’ Bassett – who has twins Slater and Bronwyn, 14, with husband Courtney B. Vance – is a big fan of animated films, and she finds herself quoting a lot of them in her everyday life.
She said: “There’s certainly many that I’ve liked and enjoy – especially having kids – with the sophistication that animated movies have come into. I’ve loved a lot of them from ‘Bolt’ to ‘WALL-E’ to ‘The Incredibles’.
“I find myself from time to time remembering some of the dialogue or if something’s happening, I might go to Bolt and go, ‘Wait for it… Wait for it… Aliens!’ [Laughs]
“When it’s something you’re anticipating, but it reminds me of that moment in the movie when the pigeons are pitching their screenplay. Just, ‘Wait for it…’ In life, wait for it sometimes.”