Wed Jul 02 15:40:00 UTC 2025: ## Taye Diggs Reveals Angela Bassett Wasn’t “Impressed” by His “Rent” Performance, But Saw His “Sexiness” Elsewhere

**Los Angeles, CA -** Before Taye Diggs steamed up the screen as Angela Bassett’s younger lover in the 1998 hit “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” Bassett wasn’t exactly sold on his stage presence. In a recent interview with Keke Palmer on her podcast, “Baby, This is Keke Palmer,” Diggs revealed that Bassett initially wasn’t “impressed” by his performance in the Broadway musical “Rent.”

Diggs, who played the role of the sellout landlord Benny, explained that his agent informed him of Bassett’s lukewarm reaction after she came to see the show. He attributed her disinterest to his character being less central to the plot, feeling he wouldn’t gain much recognition from the role.

“Rent was that show where everybody was like, ‘Okay, well, come see these kids in Rent,'” Diggs said. “And they were like, ‘Okay, well, we have this young man who’s auditioning.’ ‘How can I see him?’ Okay, come see the show Rent. And I had the smallest role in Rent of the main characters.”

However, Diggs’ career took a turn thanks to another role. Bassett found his portrayal of “Sugar Hill” on the soap opera “Guiding Light” much more appealing. “She saw the soap opera and I was playing this character on Guiding Light called Sugar Hill,” Diggs shared. “And she saw a little bit of sexiness in Sugar Hill and then she was like, ‘Okay, bring him in.'”

“How Stella Got Her Groove Back” marked Diggs’ film debut, but he admitted feeling frustrated at the time, believing his success was delayed compared to his “Rent” co-stars. He jokingly added that his co-stars Idina Menzel and Jesse Martin had gotten a record deal and a TV show respectively, leaving him as the last one to achieve success.

Ultimately, Diggs acknowledges that he wasn’t aiming to simply reach the peak of stardom with “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” His ambition was to achieve the crossover success of someone like Will Smith.

While Diggs never reached Smith’s level of global superstardom, he has enjoyed a long and successful film career, starring in movies like “Brown Sugar,” “Chicago,” and the film adaptation of “Rent.”

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