Critics Choice Awards: Angela Bassett Pays Tribute To Chadwick Boseman In Speech [Watch]

Angela Bassett remembered Chadwick Boseman as she celebrated her Best Supporting Actress win at this year's Critics Choice Awards.

The 64-year-old actress received the trophy Sunday night for her performance in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." On stage, Bassett recalled the moment she "fell in love" with acting during a school trip to Washington D.C. and said, "I knew at that moment that this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to make people feel the way that I felt, stirring in my seat as those actors drew me in, scene by scene, into their story."

"I didn't know what the path would look like even after I got to Yale drama school. I wasn't sure what might be reasonably possible but thank God for the 'giants.' Black actresses with extraordinary talent like Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson, Rosalind Cash and Diahann Carroll," she said as the audience broke into applause.

"It was their extraordinary work that showed me that there was a place for me in this business of show, especially at a time where Black women weren't shown in a significant way, oftentimes — not really present on television or the big screen. But thank God for them," Bassett continued.

Near the end of her speech, the "Waiting to Exhale" star thanked fans and several members of her "Disney and Marvel family," which included "Wakanda Forever" director and co-writer Ryan Coogler saying that she's "proud of the work that we did" with both the 2018 original film and its sequel.

"We showed the world that we could create and lead a billion-dollar box-office success. And my prayer is that that door remains open and the sky is the limit for other Black creators and storytellers around the world to join us," she continued. "Thank you to Chadwick for your love and light surrounding us. We couldn't have made history, then and now, without you."

Boseman starred as King T'Challa in the original "Black Panther" film before his death in 2020 following a 4-year battle with cancer.

The actress earlier reacted to the audience's response to the death of her character in the sequel. " Oh, I love it. I love that friends, audiences have been so impacted by it," she told the Hollywood Reporter in December 2022.