For Courtney B. Vance, it’s always been about the craft. And his stacked portfolio proves it.
He has earned a Tony for his work in the 2013 Broadway show “Lucky Guy” and two Emmys, one for playing Johnnie Cochran in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and another for his role as George Freeman in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country.”
His prolific career across film and television has led to dozens of nominations, including a Grammy, a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards (now the Actor Awards), among other prestigious honors. However, amassing critical acclaim and widespread recognition has never been the priority for the decorated actor.
Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a full-circle moment for Vance, who has dedicated four decades of his life to mastering his craft.
“If you’re in the business long enough, there are certain things that you look toward,” Vance tells Variety. “But [awards] is not something that I work for and toward, because the work is primary for me, my family, doing right and living life the way that I would want my parents and our children to be proud of.”
Vance’s Walk of Fame ceremony will take place on Dec. 16. However, it’s not his first time participating. Nearly 20 years ago, he stood on the Hollywood sidewalk beside his wife, Angela Bassett, as she received her star on the sacred ground in 2008.
Vance and his wife, Angela Bassett, first met in 1980 and were married in 1997.
Although Vance doesn’t remember much from that moment, as he was busy taking care of their young children, he acknowledges the significance of sharing his name on the sidewalk with his wife, an occasion that isn’t common for many actors, let alone spouses.
“It’s a big deal,” Vance says. “A part of me can’t take it in. To think back to the way I started, not knowing anything, and to be here is big.”
Vance’s journey into acting wasn’t a straight shot. In fact, it hadn’t even crossed his mind as an option, let alone a career. The Detroit-native hadn’t been introduced to acting until his sophomore year at Harvard University, where he studied history.
Unsure of whether to take a traditional career path, Vance took a leap of faith to pursue a passion that he hadn’t realized he had until he performed in his first school play.
“That was the wrong choice at a time when arts weren’t a big deal like they are now,” he says. “It’s especially meaningful for me to know that I’m the poster child for following your heart. I wasn’t going to settle for anything unless it made me happy. Our generation, parents and grandparents and great grandparents suffered so that I could make that decision and that choice.”
Vance’s first encounter with acting started with the play, “Paul Sills’ Story Theatre,” and he credits his aunt for encouraging him to take acting seriously.
“My auntie saw the show and said, ‘Court, you’re good at this. You should do this.’ And that was it,” he recalls. “Acting was a way to meet people and to figure out what I wanted to do. I had no idea that acting was what I would want to end up doing. It was an opportunity that allowed me to figure it out.”
Vance’s early experiences began with school plays and performances at the Boston Shakespeare Company as an undergraduate at Harvard. He continued his training and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama in 1986.
While at Yale in 1985, Vance starred as Cory Maxson in the debut production of August Wilson’s award-winning play, “Fences.” Lloyd Richards, the director and former dean of Yale Drama, established a system in which the play toured regional theaters in Chicago and San Francisco before its Broadway run in New York.
Vance appeared alongside James Earl Jones, right, in a 1987 Broadway production of “Fences.”
Two years later, Vance reprised this role on Broadway opposite James Earl Jones, who played his father. “Fences” became a pivotal point in Vance’s journey, jumpstarting his Broadway career.
“They brought me along until I was ready, and we were all ready together,” he says. “James Earl Jones was my father. I would go up to upstate New York, where he lived, and I would just sit with him. I did the same with Lloyd Richards. They gave me my career. I owed them everything.”
Working with Jones, Wilson and Richards was a crash course or, as Vance calls it, “a PhD in acting.”
“You have to trust that the play will take you there every night,” he says, explaining how Broadway shaped his approach to acting. “I stopped trying and let myself be. I was blessed to have three and a half years on and off to figure it out. Nobody will ever have that opportunity with that show to find their way to that, but that was the blessing of being with Lloyd, James and August during that time period.”
Vance went on to star in a slew of plays like Athol Fugard’s “My Children! My Africa!,” John Guare’s “Six Degrees of Separation,” Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy,” and more, with the latter earning him a Tony for the role of Hap Hairston. His knack for captivating audiences translated into film and television.
Transitioning into acting on screen put him on the radar of other major filmmakers. In the years that followed his 1987 debut in the American war film, “Hamburger Hill,” he appeared in films from Penny Marshall’s “The Preacher’s Wife,” Robert Altman’s “Cookie’s Fortune,” Clint Eastwood’s “Space Cowboys” and narrated Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs,” to name a few.
He’s also guest starred on numerous TV series, including recurring appearances in “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “ER,” “FlashForward” and “Genius: Aretha,” among many others. In recent years, he’s starred in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “Grotesquerie,” “61st Street” on top of his award-winning roles in “Lovecraft Country” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Vance won a Primetime Emmy, a Critics’ Choice Award and an NAACP Award for portraying Johnnie Cochran in “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
With an impressive resume under his belt, it’s not lost on Vance that his journey has involved several people in his corner, including his wife of nearly 30 years.
The two actors met as graduate students at the Yale School of Drama in the ‘80s before reconnecting years later. The pair remain each other’s support systems, all while raising two children, collaborating on projects and running their company, Bassett Vance Productions, together.
“I’m her biggest cheerleader, and she’s mine,” Vance says. “I had to realize that God is first. She’s second. The children are third. My work is fourth. I’m fifth. I understand that I’m here to support her. She sees me doing all the things I’m doing for her. Then we start competing to do things for each other.”
As Vance enters the next phase of his life, he’s excited to pour into the next generation of emerging artists. Just as he had mentors to help him navigate the industry, he desires to be a guiding light for others.
“I’m looking forward to helping mentor people the way that people mentored and took care of me when I didn’t know who I was,” he says. “I want to let young folks know it’s OK. Just start.”
