Angela Bassett reveals her interest in making a new film about Blues icon Elizabeth Cotten
Over the weekend, Angela Bassett revealed she is looking to make a film about the folk and blues icon and inventor of the "Cotten picking" style of guitar playing, Elizabeth Cotten. On the red carpet for the American Horror Story 100th Episode Celebration, the actress told MEA Worldwide (MEAWW), "I've been looking at this guitar player Elizabeth Cotten that a lot of rockers and musicians were inspired by."
Cotten was a self-taught left-handed guitar player who developed her signature "Cotten picking" style when she was forced to play her right-handed guitar upside down, resulting in an alternating bassline with her fingers and playing melody with her thumb. She was an accomplished songwriter from a very young age. A song she wrote at age eleven, "Freight Train," is credited as having a big influence on the rise of the popular 1950's skiffle music genre in the UK and has been re-recorded by artists from Jerry Garcia, to Peter, Paul, & Mary, to Bob Dylan.
After retiring for two and a half decades, she was rediscovered when she started working as a maid for composers Ruth Crawford Seeger & Charles Seeger and their folk-singing family which included Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, and Mike Seeger, the latter of which she began performing concerts with that led to a number of performances with some of the biggest names in folk music and continued to perform well into her eighties.
Bassett is no stranger to playing influential real-life figures. She earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination for her depiction of Rosa Parks in 2002's "The Rosa Parks Story." She also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her critically acclaimed portrayal of Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic "What's Love Got to Do with It?," a role that also won her the Best Actress Golden Globe the same year. She also played civil rights advocate and wife of Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, in both 1992's "Malcolm X" and 1995's "Panther" as well as the civil rights leader and wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, in "Betty &Coretta" in 2013. She also played Jackson family matriarch Katherine Jackson in "The Jacksons: An American Dream" in 1992.
In addition, her beloved 'American Horror Story' Coven & Apocalypse character Marie Laveau was loosely based on a real-life voodoo queen. The role in Coven resulted in her second Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She also received her third for her AHS character, Desiree Dupree, in the fourth season, Freak Show. Fans adored her as Ramona Royale alongside Lady Gaga in the fifth season of the series, Hotel. She returned again to series the following season, Roanoke, to play her most meta role in the show: an actress named Monet Tumusiime playing a version of Adina Porter's character, Lee Harris. While she was noticeably absent in the series' seventh season, fans cheered her return as the beloved Marie Laveau for the eighth season, Apocalypse.
Fans have undoubtedly loved every character Bassett has brought to life in the hit Ryan Murphy series, but when asked if she had a personal favorite, there was a clear front-runner: "Without a doubt, I'm sorry, I just have to say it was my first season on American Horror Story, season number three, Coven, Marie Laveau."
She also said that Marie's return to the series for season eight's Apocalypse brought Bassett her own real-life magic: the magic of staying awake through her grueling shooting schedule, juggling shooting the Ryan Murphy series simultaneously with filming the Fox series, 911! "I was so thrilled, I was so excited. You know I was working on 911, and maybe the day was 16 hours, but I don't know, you just got a burst of energy when you got to Marie."
You can catch Bassett currently on the series 911 as Sergeant Athena Grant on Fox, and you can watch the current season of 'American Horror Story: 1984' on Wednesdays on FX.