Regina King was stunned when a foreign journalist admitted he didn’t have a clue who she was. The Oscar favorite recalled the conversation she had with a Hollywood Foreign Press Association member that occurred before the Golden Globes awards ceremony.
The 48-year-old L.A. native said she was shocked that the journalist thought all Black actresses were the same.
The insensitive movie critic, whom the actress did not name, confessed that he didn’t really know who she was after watching a private screening of her acclaimed new film If Beale Street Could Talk.
Regina, who has been acting for decades, won her first major movie role in the 1991 thug coming-of-age flick Boyz N the Hood.
“He said, ‘So, the other members are telling me I should know who you are’,” the actress tells Vanity Fair – and the conversation went downhill from there.
“I just let him keep talking, and he said, ‘Yes, and you just were stunning in the movie, just fantastic in the movie. But you’ve been working for a while. You’ve done some Tyler Perry films?’ I said, ‘No, no, I’ve never done a Tyler Perry film’. And it’s just that moment of, like, ‘Man, you could just say that you thought I was great in the movie’. You want to be gracious, but then there’s a part of you that wants to say, ‘We’re not all the same person!'”
Regina has good reason to feel disrespected. Through hard work and determination, she has earned the right to command top dollar and top billing in major films.
The star took home the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe at last month’s star-studded ceremony and she’s the red-hot favorite to pick up the same award at the Oscars on Sunday.
The actress is urging reporters to figure out a nicer way to address Black actors on the red carpet. She tells People magazine she has come to hate the question, “How does it feel to be here?”
“It’s like, ‘How am I going to answer this in a way that doesn’t sound like I’ve been asked this question 952 times and I am excited about answering this question again?’ It’s really just a one word answer. ‘It feels great!'”
Photo by RUSHEN / BACKGRID
