-My next guest is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress
who stars in the Fox series "9-1-1."
Season 4 premieres this Monday at 8:00 p.m.
Here is the one and only Angela Bassett.
Oh, come on, look at you.
-Hey! -Oh, it's so great to see you.
Ah, you look great.
Thank you for coming on again.
I hope the family's all well.
Are your -- How old are the kids now?
Are they --
-They are soon to be 15 in just a couple of weeks.
In about two weeks, they'll be 15 years old.
-Wow. -Yeah. They're doing good.
-What's it like to quarantine with two 14-year-olds
the past few months?
-You know, they spend an extraordinary amount of time
in their rooms.
They did before quarantine.
But now with that in-school Zooming, even more so.
So I kind of hardly see them
except at, like, dinner, making breakfast.
-Yeah. They go, "Yeah, we're good, Mom. We're good."
-Yeah, I think they're cool with that.
-You've always done this cool thing where you start
every post on social media asking --
you say, "Everybody good?"
And this is before the pandemic, before COVID.
And do you feel like people are responding
to that now even more?
-Yeah. I find that they are.
I mean, they were before, but even so now.
Some folks have gone through,
you know, extraordinary, hard times.
So they appreciate just, you know,
just that asking about how everything's going.
-Last year was tough for so many reasons,
but we also lost your good friend, Chadwick Boseman.
But there's a story here that you actually met
before "Black Panther."
Would you mind telling the story?
-We did. We did.
Yeah, a number of years ago I was -- I was so honored
to receive an honorary doctorate from Howard University.
And so I'd go there.
It was a great time, a great experience, whatever.
And, you know, life goes on. You go back to doing your work.
And I get this movie, you know, "Black Panther."
I'm sitting next to Chadwick.
Every morning we shared
the same makeup trailer, same hair trailer.
So we spend hours and hours,
you know, prepping the day, getting ready.
I'm watching him, you know,
call South Africa, get his dialect right, you know.
And so the night of the premiere -- glorious premiere.
You know, pinnacle of just everything.
Cherry on top, whatever, and I'm looking --
you know, getting ready to leave, take the kids.
The only premiere I've taken them --
one of the few premieres I've taken them to.
We're getting ready to leave.
Let me go say hello,
and I find him and give him an embrace.
It's just been incredible.
And he whispers in my ear.
He said, "When you got your honorary degree,
I was the student that escorted you throughout that day."
And I was just so blown away.
I couldn't believe that he held that back from me...
-Wow, for the whole shooting. -...until this very moment.
While we were shooting. Yeah, the entire time.
But he shared that.
And, you know, so many times you meet young people.
And they say, "Oh, I want to work with you one day."
And you know that, you know, you say, "Yeah, I hope so too."
But you know how rare that can be, you know.
But we actually did.
We actually did work together.
-Do you remember years ago, by the way,
you gave me a ride to an awards show.
-It was after the Oscars one night.
-Yeah. You remember that?
-Yeah. I think we shared the same manager or something.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-And we were in the backseat together.
-I loved it. I'll never forget it.
I was like, "You are -- I can't believe I'm with Angela Bassett.
She's so cool."
-I've never forgotten it too, because you were so cool.
You were as nice then as you are now.
So yeah, I always remember that too.
-We were doing some research about you,
and I saw that your very first TV gig, your first job,
was exactly 35 years ago on a soap opera
called "Search for Tomorrow."
-Yes, "Search for Tomorrow," right out of drama school.
And I thought it was such a big deal.
I think I had a little, small role.
I think I was a nurse and someone's sister,
big sister to someone. -Yeah.
When was the last time you saw it?
-35 years ago. [ Laughter ]
Definitely.
-Well, we actually found a clip of you
from a 1985 episode of "Search for Tomorrow."
Watch this. -Oh, my God.
-How's it going, Salina?
-Well, well, look what the wind blew in.
Hmm? -You're mad, right?
-Only dogs get mad.
-Okay, so you're angry?
-Do I look angry?
-What do you think?
-Well, by the look in your eye,
I'd say it's not one of your better days.
-Oh, you read me right.
[ Laughter ]
-My voice is so high.
-Oh.
-"You read me right."
-And look at you now.
I want to talk about "9-1-1."
Season 4 premieres on Monday.
This show is all about first responders.
So can you set up what's going on this season?
'Cause it was a crazy episode the end of last season.
-Yeah. Yeah.
At the end of last season, you know, Athena was --
I mean, she was brutally attacked.
And, of course, she's been healing.
And the physical -- the physical wounds have healed,
the face, the arm, whatever.
But what about her emotionally, mentally?
That's where we're at.
But also, as we know in this world, you know,
trauma and tragedy is around each and every corner.
And as it opens up, there's been this huge sort of, like,
break at the Hollywood Reservoir,
and there's sludge and mudslides that's taking down --
just taking down neighborhoods and iconic signs and everything.
And first responders -- there's never a day off.
So either she's going to run in
and help or she's going to retreat.
-Of course. -And we see what happens.
-You do a great job. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Angela Bassett in the season premiere of "9-1-1."
Take a look.
-They are not thinking on their feet out there.
It's more like their elbows.
-Got an alarming call from the emergency operations center.
They think those micro quakes
might've damaged more than just the dam.
They're worried about a landslide east of the reservoir.
-East of the reservoir.
Well, that's all residential.
You're going to need more boots on the ground,
people to knock on doors.
-And someone to supervise the scene.
Look, I know you said you wanted to ease in,
but I need you back out there.
-Angela Bassett.
Season 4 of "9-1-1" premieres
Monday at 8:00 p.m. on Fox.
Thank you so much for being here.
You know I love you.