Angela Bassett Shares ‘Beautiful,’ ‘Full Circle Moment’ She and Chadwick Boseman Had on the Black Panther Set (Exclusive)

Angela Bassett has emotional memories of her time working with the late Chadwick Boseman.

The award-winning actress tells PEOPLE in her Women Change the World cover story that she and the late Boseman shared a “beautiful,” “full-circle moment” together when Bassett finished shooting her scenes for the first Black panther the film that premiered in 2018.

“It was my last day of shooting and we were at the falls at Warrior Falls. I finished my assignment and Chadwick came over and hugged me. And I just hugged him and I just hugged him,” Bassett recalls. “And of course, it was a magnificent set filled with magnificent beauty and people and music and pride.”

In both Black panther and its continuation, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Bassett played Queen Ramonda, the mother of Boseman’s character, T’Challa, also known as Black Panther. Bassett’s portrayal of the grieving queen earned her a second Oscar nomination in 2023.

Reflecting on Boseman, who died of colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of 43, Bassett praised his character and achievements.

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“Seeing the work he did and getting to know, every day, the human being that he was — sometimes you don’t have to say much, but you can just look into each other’s eyes and convey all that you are, all that you hope for,” she says.

“You don’t know what the future holds,” she adds, reflecting on the star’s untimely death. “And of course, it was something very different from what anyone could have imagined.”

She and Boseman met years before he became famous when she gave the commencement address at Howard University in 2000. Reassembly during crafting Black panther it represented a “beautiful moment,” she says.

“Meeting this young man who was a student when I got my honorary degree at Howard, he was my chaperone,” she says, noting, “It was a full-circle moment and now the great opportunity I had to portray his mother.”

Angela Bassett (left) and Chadwick Boseman inside Black panther. Marvel/Disney

At the Golden Globes in January 2023, Bassett spoke about paying tribute to Boseman’s work Wakanda forever, which shifted its plot from a planned father-son story to one honoring its original title star. “Crying may come in the evening, but joy comes in the morning,” Bassett said on stage.

“We embarked on this journey together with love. We grieved. We loved. We healed. And every day we were surrounded by the light and spirit of Chadwick Boseman,” she said at the time.

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“We are glad to know that with this historic Black panther series, it’s part of his legacy that he helped lead us to. We showed the world what black unity, leadership and love looks like behind, in front of the camera,” Bassett continued.

Chadwick Boseman. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Bassett also opened up to PEOPLE about the “struggle” of her own hard-won career since her 1991 breakthrough. Boyz n the Hood to his honorary Oscar presented at the Governors Awards in January.

“I have always been a hard worker,” the 9-1-1 says the PEOPLE cover star. “You have to know what to say no to, as well as what to say yes to. And during this time, many things were worth saying yes to.”

For more on Angela Bassett’s life lessons, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

She often leaves her home before sunrise and returns after dark to film 9-1-1 (which begins its seventh season with The Honeymoon Disaster on ABC on March 14) for a few days, says she feels guilty about the time she spends away from her teenage children, who start college in the fall.

“But I also hope that the result of this is that they see a mom, a woman, a black woman achieving her dreams, having success,” she says. “They will see that hard work pays off. And they will decide for themselves about that life.”

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Source: HIS Education