Angela Bassett is halfway to obtaining EGOT status after winning her first Emmy award on Sept. 7.
The Academy Award recipient won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Narration on National Geographic’s nature documentary “Queens,” Variety reports. It was the first award of the night, and one Bassett was not expecting.
“This is one of the big ones, and that doesn’t usually happen,” Bassett said during a press conference.
“Whenever you’re acknowledged, I’m just, you know, a girl who just wanted to act. My mentors were way out ahead of me. I just looked to them and got inspiration and hope, and I just put my focus, my energy, and my love to try to make it happen in my life and for my life.”
She added: “So each and every day, I try to remember that first love, and when this happens, I appreciate it.”
The six-part documentary highlights the iconic worlds of nature ruled by the most impressive female leaders in the animal kingdom. Each episode follows different animal queens around the world, including Savanna Queens, African Queens, Tiny Jungle Queens, Rainforest Queens, Coastal Queens, and Mountain Queens.
Bassett was on a break from filming FX’s “9-1-1” when she agreed to work on the all-female-led project that sought her out.
“We don’t work for these, but we receive them for all the hard work that we do,” Bassett said. “Of course, it’s not work that you do alone, even though it’s for narration. There’s a whole team that pursued me and believed in me, fought for me, and worked with me to tell this amazing story of females in the wild kingdom, led by an all-female production team, a first in wildlife documentary filmmaking. So that was pretty inspiring to me in and of itself.”
The “Black Panther” star joked when asked about her inspiration for signing on to narrate the documentary.
“I was awfully tired after chasing bad guys and being a cop,” Bassett said, referencing her “9-1-1” show. “The idea of an all-female crew in the wilderness telling this story and centering it on the matriarchs and the conservation they were doing — it touched my heart.”
The Emmy win joins the honorary Academy Award Angela Bassett received in
January. Bassett has been candid about the disappointment she felt when she lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2023 following her loss for Best Actress in 1994.RELATED CONTENT: An Ageless Angela Bassett Proves She’s Still Got Her Groove In Mugler Fashion Show Runway Debut