Is “Green Lantern’s” Amanda Waller going to be the Nick Fury of the DC Movie Universe – the connective character that brings superheroes together? If Angela Bassett has her way, that's a big, fat yes.
“I didn't want to just come out and ask [the studio] that, but maybe I should have – I certainly hope so,” Bassett tells PopcornBiz of her role in DC’s superhero film, which despite softer-than-expected box office may still light the way for a cinematic DC Universe that includes Green Lantern’s fellow Justice League members like the Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.
The comic book incarnation of tough, ruthless and always Machiavellian Amanda Waller, similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in Marvel’s films (he shows up in both "Iron Man" films, "Thor," and plays a major role in the upcoming "The Avengers"), has been connected to the more shadowy, superpower-centric corners of the U.S. government since her debut in 1986. With no particularly strong comic book connection to Green Lantern, “The Wall’s” inclusion in the film suggests she might recur in another DC flick down the line, and while Bassett knows just how key her comics alter ego can be, she’s not certain if she’ll be keeping tabs on any other heroes or villains.
“It wasn't set up that way,” she admits. “Hopefully somebody as brilliant as you that's got their thinking cap on.”
Waller usually tips the scales at a much higher fighting weight in the comics than Bassett’s on-screen version, and the actress was pleased she got to play a Jenni Craig-ified Amanda. “You're the first one who has said that, but it's true,” she laughs. “And we thought about it, but they didn't really want to go that way. And I'm glad!” She said playing the Full Wall would’ve been the reverse of finding her pumped up physique as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” but “it would have been easier.”
“It's just so different from anything that I've done before,” she says of the character she hopes to revisit, “so it's great to just be a part of this really unique and larger-than-life world.”
Meanwhile, she’ll be getting governmental again for 2012’s “This Means War,” co-starring alongside Chris Pine, Tom Hardy and Reese Witherspoon. “They're two guys who are vying for the affections of Reese – they're FBI agents and I'm the head of their unit. And I want some work done, but boys will be boys.”
