Angela Bassett is an angel. But you should already know that. The American Horror Story and Malcolm X actress has been quietly brilliant for close to a quarter decade now, lending a calm sense of gravitas to all manner of projects. Criminally underrated and under appreciated by mainstream Hollywood, she’s so good and what she does, she made parts of Green Lantern tolerable. Truly, we do not deserve her.
Multi-talented and multifaceted, for years she’s done what all underrated talents do, they just work harder. Bassett will soon been featuring in the new Rainbow Six game, Rainbow Six Siege. Despite being a self-confessed novice gamer, (“I played Pac-Man!”), when I talk to Angela at a recent London preview for the game, it becomes clear what attracted her to the role.
Angela plays badasses, and she does it it damn well. Following Kevin Spacey’s turn in Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare, and Jeff Goldblum (among others) in this year’s Black Ops III, first person shooters seem to be getting in a habit of casting great character actors to give their stories added heft. So when it came for Ubisoft’s turn to get someone to give their game some added chops, it only make sense to cast Academy Award nominated Bassett in the role of Six, head of global security in the game.
“A thing that really tipped me off [on the project] before they sent all that is that it used to have Tom Clancy attached, so I knew of the books and went ‘Oh he does videogames also and has never had a female Six in books in the game? Well then you can be the first!’, and that always piques your interest.”
And pique your interest is what Bassett does, steadily navigating you through the Siege’s single player element “Situations”. Less a storyline mode, and more a collection of missions to teach you facets of the game, it’s Angela who will narrate the new tactical combat nuances to the game, explaining the quirks and perks of playing as a heavy, sniper or support soldier, (“I’d be a heavy!”). In what could have been a simple videogame tutorial mode, instead saw Angela motion captured for the role, (“The second time they sprayed my face…. felt pretty good, until they turn this blacklight on and it turns into a street pavement. You just look like a cement face. So of course I asked for a video of it to send to my kids “Go to sleep!”) in order to give the selection of stories that added heft.
But while she may be a badass leader of global security in the game, Angela remains the actress we fell in love with nearly three decades ago. When I ask here what changes she’d make if she was in charge of global security, she merely replied “Free lunch for everyone. Free lunch for all and three hours of play.”
Told you we didn’t deserve her.
You can read my preview of Rainbow Six Siege here, over on Sabotage Times.
