Bassett: “ER is a great drama that has proven itself. And it’s literally 15 minutes from my home.”

MCT / Bruce Gilbert

When film actor Angela Bassett was considering a substantial role on NBC’s long-running medical drama, ER, she particularly remembers one actor encouraging her to make the move: cast mate Mekhi Phifer.

So imagine Bassett’s surprise when she arrived for her first day of work as County General Hospital’s new chief Dr. Catherine Banfield, only to see her colleagues in tears and black clothing, having just filmed the scene where Phifer’s Dr. Pratt was cremated.

Laughing at the memory, Bassett, 50, acknowledged some might wonder why an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actor with roles in high-profile films such as What’s Love Got to Do With It and Waiting to Exhale would join a TV series, especially one Hollywood considers a bit diminished heading into its 15th and final season.

But consider how stars such as Laurence Fishburne, Holly Hunter and Glenn Close have earned awards and headlines for TV work and the continuing challenges for women of a certain age and ethnicity in today’s film industry and Bassett’s move makes more sense.

“An actor has to act,” said Bassett, who plays a tough doctor with a troubled past coming back to Chicago after working on tsunami relief in Indonesia.

“You get tired of waiting for the perfect movie role, and it doesn’t really, I think, serve you well to do just anything that comes along because you want to work,” she added. “ER is a great drama that has proven itself. And it’s literally 15 minutes from my home.”

Bassett even got husband Courtney Vance involved, playing her onscreen spouse in their first roles together. The pair join NBC’s drama during a swan song season featuring appearances from past stars such as Anthony Edwards and Noah Wyle, amid a faint hope George Clooney might revisit County General later this year.

According to Bassett, producers considered casting Vance after meeting him at a brunch for the show’s cast and crew hosted by longtime ER producer John Wells. Initially reluctant to horn in on his wife’s role, Vance eventually fit in well enough to produce a little good-natured husband/wife rivalry.

“(At first) he said, ‘That’s your job’ … you know, reverse psychology,” she said, laughing. “So Courtney comes on the set, and he’s a kidder. But when it’s a serious scene and it’s your husband, you’re just like ‘Stop kidding, stop kidding. Don’t you see me trying to get a character?’ ”

Born in New York and raised by her mother, Betty Bassett, in St. Petersburg, Fla., Bassett said a trip with the Upward Bound academic program to see a Shakespeare play at the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota sparked her interest in acting. Still, childhood friend and former St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Maria Scruggs-Weston said she was surprised by Bassett’s acting career, recalling her as smart but often shy during their time together in Upward Bound in the early ’70s.

“I always envisioned her being a college professor or something,” Scruggs-Weston said. “She’s just always been brilliant.”

ER producers used similar words in describing Bassett, who only asked initially that her character’s name be changed from Bancroft which she found difficult to say to Banfield.

“I went back to the writers and said, ‘Bassett’s going to be difficult,’ ” said executive producer David Zabel, laughing. “The great thing about TV, is there’s a dance that happens between the writers and the actor. When we create a character like Angela’s character or Stanley Tucci’s character or Forest Whitaker’s character sometimes that dance doesn’t kick into full drive for a few episodes because we’re getting to know each other.”

Now just past filming her sixth or seventh episode, Bassett hasn’t yet seen a completed show, trusting the producers and her own instincts to develop a performance that makes sense.

“I love doing films, because I love the intensity of it … but a one-hour TV drama is like a movie that never ends,” Bassett said. “Last week, (Vance) and I were there until 3:30 in the morning. But I told them, ‘Don’t bring me on and don’t use me.’ And I got what I asked for.”