Angela Bassett Hopes To Inspire First Woman POTUS
Angela Bassett stepped into the role of commander-in-chief twice on screen this year and says she’s hoping her portrayals help pave the way for a real woman to take the White House.
The two-time Oscar nominee plays President Erika Sloane in the upcoming summer blockbuster Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and previously portrayed President Evelyn Mitchell in the Netflix political thriller Zero Day.
“Whenever I’m portraying them, I’m hoping and waiting for the day where life will imitate art. We’re not there yet, obviously,” Bassett told People.
Bassett has long been outspoken about the importance of representation and believes her presidential roles may help audiences imagine new possibilities.
“Maybe (it’s) for some people to see representation. We always talk about that idea of seeing yourself in film and theatre, seeing what’s possible, human interaction,” she said. “So I think … the film is aspirational in its way, so one day, one day. We’ll get there.”
The United States has come close to electing a woman president twice in recent years—first with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and then with Kamala Harris in 2024.
Both lost to Donald Trump, who secured 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226 in the most recent election.
Excerpt: Angela Bassett used her presidential roles and her personal platform to push for Kamala Harris’s election and hopes to see a woman lead the U.S. soon.