By Jawn Murray, BlackVoices.com

Angela Bassett is a bonafide movie star with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to prove it!

The Academy Award nominated thespian, who has had phenomenal turns playing Tina Turner ('What's Love Got To Do With It'), Katherine Jackson ('The Jacksons: An American Dream'), Dr. Betty Shabazz ('Malcolm X'/'Panther'), Rosa Parks ('The Rosa Parks Story') and Voletta Wallace ('Notorious'), is now wowing viewers as Dr. Cate Banfield in the final season of NBC's drama 'E.R.'

The 50-year-old 'How Stella Got Her Grove Back' star is married to actor Courtney B. Vance ('Law & Order: Criminal Intent') and the couple has 3-year-old twins, son Slater Josiah and daughter Bronwyn Golden.

When I spoke to Bassett during our interview at the W Hotel in New York City, the Harlem-bred talent opened up about why she returned to television; the challenges of being a parent and working actress; and her new foray into directing.

So many actors and actresses name you when asked which actors inspire them or who's work do they appreciate. How does it feel to have that type of influence?

It's humbling because as they're speaking of me, I spoke of Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson in terms of female artists especially in a time where there was scarcity of roles. I'm pleased that I had the experiences and opportunities that even put me in a position where someone could say something like that.

Are there ever any roles that you look back and wonder why you accepted that part?

Why did I say yes to 'Critters 4'? Then I knew why I said yes, because up to that point, I'd never been in a film where I was in it from the beginning to the end of the movie. I had no idea what it was like to sustain a character shooting the film out of sequence and then to see the finished product as a cohesive whole. This may not be high art or great art, but this is more of a lab or a classroom for me. I remember why I made that choice knowing that it wasn't a high art genre. I don't have any regrets. At one point in the movie 'Notorious' where Puffy's character says, 'Don't chase the money, chase the dream.' That is a lot of how I felt going into this film.

At what point did you realize you were an actress and could likely make a living off of this talent?

Waking up to the dream I think about being 15 seeing me in church conventions doing this whole long poem by Langston Hughes called 'Sing for Me.' It was this revolutionary poem that he had written with this grassroots spirit. Afterwards, you could see people just standing and applauding and really into it. That was the beginning of me thinking that maybe this is something that I can do. I was just up here, but I got into it and it had an effect on people so that was the beginning of the dream. It was like, 'I'm shy, but I'm good. Look at this standing ovation. They felt it.' I don't think I felt like that after the first gig. Maybe a little bit, but when I went to drama school and got a job after about seven months. That's when I got my first acting job with the Bus & Truck Tour of Colored People Time. I was the understudy. From that day, I couldn't continue my survival gig with US News & World Report magazine. I had to let the survival gig go. The job that kept the lights on and the rent paid, I had to let that go because it was a conflict since I couldn't come to work every day. I said that once that's done, I'll come back and pick this up. Even my boss at the time told me to go and do my auditions. I couldn't be sad, this is what I went to school for. This is what I wanted. I said goodbye to some really nice people who allowed me to come and go do my auditions. Then, I had to completely say goodbye because this is not what I trained for and from that day my survival gig became acting.

You are directing your first film. Tell me about that.

The film is based on a book by Percival Everett called 'Erasure.' I always thought that I had a third eye, but it's frightening and I always wonder if I can pull it off. That's what's exciting; you don't want to get too comfortable. It's still a challenge. That's what this movie was starting out. You don't know how it's gonna turn out, you just know that it's gonna pan out. This is something that keeps you alive, wakes you up and keeps you guessing. It's a good story. I've had opportunities in the past to direct smaller, independent movies and television shows. I never want to do it just for the heck of it. As much time and attention as I play a character, imagine doing that for all of the characters, all the sets, all the lighting, all the music and all of the executives who are not creative. I cannot go through all of that if I'm not passionate about it and don't mind talking about it all the time and don't mind having that conversation over and over again. I hadn't found that script.

You are working on 'E.R.' now, which is your return to TV. Why did you decide to take on a TV acting part?

Times have changed. There used to be such a separation between TV and film acting. Now you have people moving back and forth between the two. It's no longer like film actors are better that television actors or stage actors are better than television actors. I'm glad that 'ER' is an ensemble show because with a one hour episode in drama seems to never end and it's three, four or six months before it finally comes to an end. I can't imagine doing a two hander or a show that really stars one person because your life is not your own all year long except for maybe five weeks and if it's a drama it's so emotional because you're doing that 16 hours a day nonstop. It's like trying to hold on to a moving train; it never slows down. Even on the weekends, you work on Friday night until four in the morning, you have Sunday and then Monday morning you hit it again. You're doing one scene and trying to memorize the next scene and it's like the only thing you know for sure is your name. I would think that it could get to be too much where you fake it unless you have a photographic memory. That ain't me.

How do you and your husband balance both being working actors and having children?

When the kids came along, he finished 'Law & Order' so he was home. Our lives are blessed, but it's not to the point where I know my next projects for the next five years. It's still very much like the life of most actors. You're doing this one; it comes to an end, what's the next one? It's worked out that we've both been there and he's been there. It was great that I did 'E.R.' and he was asked to come on as my husband. It was supposed to be for three episodes and then it got stretched to maybe five because it's working so it's been extended. So far it's working out. At the end of this, he just got a new pilot so he'll start with that. The ebb and flow of this life has worked out. I think the hardest part for me is that I work 15 minutes from home, but if you're on location for a film, you go away and it's so tough. I was talking to another actress who came back to the show, Alex Kingston, and she went to to do a TV show for five months and her child stayed in . She came home every six weeks or once a month for a couple of days. I was like, 'Let's not even talk about it because I can't imagine.' I'm 15 minutes from work, but their schedule is their schedule. On Monday, I have to be there at 6:00 am which means I have to get up at five, but they're not up at 5:00 am. They're not up until 7:00 am. I have to do a 12 to a 16 hour day and when I get home at 8:00 pm, they're sleep because they go to bed at 7:30. Then, on Fridays we might work until 3:00 in the morning so that's the hard part. I'm in the house with them- the husband and the children- and I haven't seen you all day or I haven't seen you for two days.

You've played so many strong mothers in movies. Having most recently starred as Voletta Wallace in 'Notorious,' tell me what you took away from the experience of playing her.

I just find it interesting how much she observed, how much she loved her son from the meals that she cooked to everything, but there were still things that she wouldn't abide. Sometimes you have an only son and it's just you and he and how to spoil him, but to a hard line especially when it came to education and when he stopped going to school. She just put her foot down on that because something like education was that important to her. That just holds this incredible capacity to love him and that was an act of love.