Angela Bassett Still Knows How To Keep It Real

Angela Bassett has portrayed several real-life figures during her 20-plus year career in film and television -- including Tina Turner; Malcolm X's wife, Betty Shabazz; Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson; and Notorious B.I.G.'s mother, Voletta Wallace — but only once did she ever receive any sort of criticism afterward from one of the women.

“Betty Shabazz told me ‘I never wore those kinds of clothes,'” Bassett said recently at a downtown Chicago hotel. “She could say whatever she wants. She lived quite a life.”

Bassett has thrived under the pressure that comes with playing a real-life figure (her role as Turner in 1993's “What's Love Got to Do With It” earned her an Oscar nomination). In fact, she admitted she has more fun playing these roles than fictional characters because she enjoys watching people and picking up their mannerisms.