THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604280098
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARSHA GILBERT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Angela Bassett is a good sport.
The sight of the Oscar-nominated actress taking a tennis lesson at Norfolk State University on Saturday left no doubt that she's . . . well, let's just say, new at the game. But she was humble enough to learn in front of fans with cameras.
Bassett, along with other television and movie actors, was in town for the sixth annual Tim Reid Celebrity Weekend.
Among the other stars here are Al Freeman, from ``Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored''; Billy Davis Jr., an original member of the Fifth Dimension; Glynn Turman, a film director; Robert Guillaume, star of ``Benson''; Anna Maria Horsford, now on ``The Wayans''; and, of course, hosts Tim Reid of ``Sister, Sister'' and Daphne Maxwell-Reid of ``Fresh Prince of Bel Air.''
They all got together to help raise money for NSU scholarships.
``I had to have financial aid, academic scholarships and work-study to pay for college,'' said Bassett, who received a master's degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1983. ``My mother could never have afforded to send me to college without the help.''
Bassett waded through a sea of admirers, signing autographs, posing for pictures and shaking hands.
``I didn't know who she was without her makeup,'' one man said.
``Security snatched her away so quick I barely got to see her,'' said another.
Children and adults waited with magazines containing articles about Bassett for her to sign.
``She really wanted to see Angela Bassett,'' Ann Gourdine said of her 8-year-old daughter, Emily. ``Last year was so much fun. We didn't want to miss it this year. It's for a worthy cause. I think the stars enjoy this as much as we do.''
Before her tennis lesson, the soft-spoken star of the recent hit movie ``Waiting to Exhale'' was calm and poised, dressed in black tights, warm-up jacket and sneakers, her braids tied back. She spoke about her latest work and her experience in Hollywood.
``I think `Exhale' wouldn't be the same if it had a different race cast,'' said Bassett, 37, originally from St. Petersburg, Fla. ``We don't often see those images portrayed of strong, positive, black females. We're so captivating, intriguing and sensitive. White women have a different story to tell.''
She recalled a recent meeting with a movie executive.
``We were looking at a script, and he wondered, `Were black women in France in the 1700s?' Whether they were or not, it's a movie,'' she said, laughing. ``I see older actors playing high school students. I don't want to hear that we can't be in different places in history. It only seems like the movie has to be authentic when black actors are in it.''
Bassett, who won critical acclaim for her portrayal of singer Tina Turner in ``What's Love Got to Do With It,'' said she gravitates toward certain kinds of roles.
``They're all strong, positive women,'' she said. ``I'm attracted to them. It's the triumph of the human spirit. You have a testimony when you've had a test. I like women who survive. Life is tough, but the spirit to overcome it, that's the story I like to tell.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Angela Bassett, star of ``Waiting to Exhale'' and ``What's Love Got
to Do With It,'' gets a lesson in how to hold a racket. At the sixth
annual Tim Reid Celebrity Weekend, Bassett said scholarships are
important: ``My mother could never have afforded to send me to
college without the help.''
At an event on Saturday, Al Freeman, an actor in Tim Reid's ``Once
Upon A Time When We Were Colored,'' signs a T-shirt worn by Shirley
Lassiter of Portsmouth, an NSU alumnus and former board member.
Reid, left, and his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid, host the annual
weekend of special events with celebrities and fans.
by CNB