Angela basset is one of the most well-known and iconic black female actors from this era in the 90s. In her beginning she graduated from Yale drama school, already proving an impressive knowledge of acting. She got her stardom started when she portrayed Tina Turner in the film What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993). For this role she was awarded a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Oscar for best actress. She got the Oscar nomination by establishing her own screen identity while playing a woman already known to millions of people. After playing Tina Turner she co-starred along with Eddie Murphy in Vampire in Brooklyn (1995). Some people think Angela Basset was too theatrical or too dramatic, but there were still many other directors that appreciated and recognized her talent/craft. Nothing came easy for Basset, after she starred in such successful films, she still had to search for roles. But sooner than later, after the 90s ended, she would find that many would love to have her in their projects, especially today.
I chose Whitney Houston to focus on because I actually had no idea she acted before this class. Whitney Houston was one of the most prominent stars of the film Waiting to Exhale (1995) and that was because she was already known as a major popstar. Whitney Houston’s first film The Bodyguard (1992) was a thriller/melodrama that dealt with the growing romance between a black popstar and a white bodyguard. The film grossed over 100 million in the states and 247 million abroad. The reason this film was so enticing to audiences was because it featured an interracial romance. As progressive as this sounds the film was more an ideal white male fantasy. After the success of these films, she stared opposite to Denzel Washington in The Preacher’s Wife (1996). She then signed a major contract with Disney. During this height in her popularity as an actor she secured the rights to biography of a woman that every black actor wanted to play, the role of Dorothy Dandridge. She was viewed as a box office mega star. After suffering several personal traumas her presence and demand in film became less. This trauma along with her growing age became the reasons why it became hard for her to keep her acting career as big as it was. Though her music career remained great.