Regina King on Her Time In Hollywood: ‘I Have More Power Than I Thought I Had’
Regina King, the award-winning star of such award-winning projects as If Beale Street Could Talk and HBO’s Watchmen, is producing a new TV series. Here’s how she found her powerful voice in an industry that was not exactly built for her.
Regina King, the Emmy and Oscar-winning actor, is producing a new TV series with her sister for The CW
According to Deadline, King and her sister Reina King are producing the new CW drama series Slay. The show will be about:
Carson Jones, a bold, witty teenager with afro puffs, leather boots, ’70s cool and – thanks to her mother’s ancient African bloodline – supernatural gifts and the responsibility to use them to protect Virginia’s Historic Triangle (one of the most haunted areas in the country) from the forces of darkness.
Regina King discovered her power — but realizes she had more of it than she expected, even at a young age
In a recent profile in Glamour, King spoke about the projects she’s producing now. But she also reflected on her long career in Hollywood. She told the magazine:
There are moments where I feel like when I can look back in life and definitely see that maybe I have more power than I thought I had, and because I didn’t know, I didn’t access it. I didn’t allow myself to utilize it, because I just did not realize it.
However, King has accessed that power since then; her slew of successfully-produced projects more than proves that. According to Glamour, King enjoyed a successful directorial debut with One Night in Miami. She is “considered to be a heavy favorite to make history in the Oscar race because of” the 2020 film.
How did the Oscar-winning actor find her voice in the industry?
“I can’t say that there was a moment, a particular moment, where a light bulb went off that was like, ‘Wow. You’ve got some cachet. You can move something,’” she explained. However, over time, she tapped into that divine strength.
“… I will say that thank God for wisdom because I am much more in tune with that power,” King told Glamour.
The ‘Watchmen’ star was a voice for the underrepresented at the Golden Globes in 2019
As Glamour pointed out, King is using her power as a Hollywood producer to lift up other underrepresented people in the entertainment business. In her 2019 Golden Globes acceptance speech, the Watchmen star shared:
I’m going to use my platform right now to say, in the next two years, everything that I produce, I am making a vow — and it’s going to be tough — to make sure that everything that I produce, that it’s 50% women.
King has tapped into her voice — something that became very clear in last year’s awards show speech. And she put it on other industry big-wigs to follow in her footsteps.
“I just challenge anyone out there who is in a position of power—not just in our industry, in all industries — I challenge you to challenge yourselves and stand with us in solidarity and do the same,” she said at the Golden Globes.
