- Hi, I'm Regina King,
here again with Seasoned,
and we are about to take a trip down memory lane.
(upbeat music playing)
I don't know
what I'm gonna see.
I am just
anxious to find out what it's gonna be.
You know, this is a 30 plus year career here, so...
I feel pretty good about the choices
I've made over the years,
so let's get to it!
"Boys n the Hood"
- Who is that, Shanice?
- That's Tre, Ricky's best friend.
He used to be best friends with Doughboy
when they was little.
You know how they be trying to act
like they brothers and shit.
- Girl, he is fine!
I'd like to rush that!
He go to Washington? - Nia Long
was givin' us side eye!
Well, first of all,
I'm wondering where a couple of those girls are.
Lisa was a great actress,
so I'm wondering where she is now!
Might have to ask somebody
to, like, go on their Facebook page,
'cause I'm not on Facebook,
and see if they can find her for me.
And, um,
it was so ghetto! (laughing)
In the greatest way.
And just how young Nia and I are in there!
Man!
Oh, Gosh! Good time!
- You weak! You a weak-ass punk!
You think you the shit just 'cause you work out?
You ain't buff!
I wish I never met your sorry ass!
You a sorry mother (beep).
Yeah, that's right!
Brush that weak-ass fade!
(beep) dick can't stay hard five minutes!
The (beep) you do,
take steroids? - Oh, wow.
- That's the reason why I'm (beep) somebody else!
- Oh, goodness!
But wow, my voice is so high!
I can hear a little bit of Riley in there.
That's what I was thinking
when I was watching that.
I enjoy everything that I've done.
You know, I get asked that question,
but, um,
while Janet and Tupac are both iconic,
I have to be honest.
It was no more or less special
than anyone else that I've worked with.
You know, I've gotten the opportunity
to work with some pretty amazing people.
- [Producer] Did you think it was going to be
such an iconic film in black history as it is now?
Probably not.
You know, I think I felt that more with "Boys n the Hood"
just because of the subject matter,
and just because, you know, our neighborhoods,
they've never been,
like, captured that way, you know, on film.
You know, and it was John telling a story.
And yeah, now I'm thinking I miss him.
Yeah.
All right, let's move on!
Don't wanna...
Go there!
- This is what - Oh.
- You're gonna do.
You're gonna reject that shitty contract,
you're gonna play out
your existing shitty contract - My voice was deepening up
and you're gonna go be - at this point
a free agent next year. - in life.
- Come on, hey!
Hey!
Baby, this is us!
You and me!
We determine our worth.
Baby, you are a strong, proud,
surviving, splendid black man.
- Mhm!
Cuba!
(Regina laughing)
That was just special!
Black love!
We were the...
I think of us as that couple
that no matter what race people were,
when that film came out,
like, that was the love you wanted to achieve.
That relationship was the relationship
you wished you could have.
Or wish you can have, you know, present or past.
So yeah, that was a special moment,
and I had just had my son.
I was a mom for about a month here,
so, yeah.
That was very special!
- Leave your family!
You are a damn fool, you know that?
Between the dope and the music and me,
you already done left your damn family!
(crying) You know what the sad part about it is, Ray,
you don't even know it.
You know what?
From now on, it's strictly business between you and me!
(crumpling paper)
- I think about, I smacked the shit out of Jamie.
(laughing) In that scene!
He still talks about it to this day.
I think he still has some PTSD behind it.
Sometimes you're in the...
Ooh, I felt so bad afterwards.
But sometimes you're in the moment,
and you don't even realize!
But he said, I caught him a couple times
with real, real, (trailing off) yeah.
He got (makes hitting noise),
got a good one.
So that was the first thing I thought of,
and thought about it the whole entire time,
every time the shot went to him,
I was, like, was he sitting there thinking,
damn, Regina slapped the shit out of me!
So that's what I was thinking! (laughing)
- There's always somethin'!
(curtain rustling)
- Now you tell me!
(man screaming)
What's wrong with you, woman!
Ah!
Shit!
Have you lost your mind!
- Yeah, I lost my mind,
but I found it when you was in New York
playing House with that ho! (whipping sounds)
- If I get up off this floor,
- Come on, let me see you get up.
(more whipping sounds) (man screaming in pain)
- Shit! Listen! I can explain about New York.
- No, you don't need to explain.
Just get (whipping sounds)
your shit (whipping sounds)
And get out (whipping sounds)
of my mother's house! (whipping sounds)
- [Man] Shit!
- (laughing) Okay.
So there's a great story that goes with that.
So, first thought,
I thought Laz was such a great partner in this,
and such a good sport.
Um,
in the original script,
it was written that,
that moment, where she grabs some scissors
out of the drawer, and, like, puts them to his neck,
and she's, like, you know, "Get out my mom's house."
And I was, like, mhm, yeah, that's, yeah.
This is, we've worked up to get to a moment.
It needs to be a moment!
So I shared this story,
one of my girlfriends actually did this
Chick-Chick.
She found, caught her husband cheatin',
and she did this,
And she told, we were in my friend Samara's house,
in the living room,
and she told us this story.
And, so, I shared it with the writer.
And they were kind of, like,
"Uh, yeah, I'm not sure."
And I was like,
"Okay, but you need to come up with something
"other than the scissors."
So two days later, they called me, and they were, like,
"Do you think that we could use that story?"
And I was, like, "Sure,"
and then meanwhile,
I'm like, oh gosh, I don't have Chick-Chick's number,
'cause years have gone by.
And I ran into her at the nail salon
about a year or two ago,
and she just happened,
it was not my regular nail spot.
I just had some time to pass,
so I was gonna get a mani right quick,
and she was there, and I was, like,
"Oh my God! Chick-Chick! How you doing?"
Hugs, hugs.
And she was, like, "Do you remember
"when I told you that story
"in Samara momma house
"and you said 'I'mma put that in a movie one day.'"
I totally forgot about that,
but...
We did, so!
- We need a car!
We gonna have to jack someone!
Where's your gun?
- I dropped the gun. - You hear the voice?
- You dropped the gun? - Do you hear,
- What's done is done. - "Poetic Justice" here?
- Let's be solution oriented!
You mad?
- How you gonna drop the gun, Gangstalicious?
That is not gangsta!
That's very not gangsta!
Man, I can't believe this!
You a fraud!
It's like going to heaven
and finding God smokin' crack.
(Regina laughing)
- I might have to go back
and watch some of those episodes, man!
Aaron McGruder!
Genius!
I mean!
My son was eight at the time,
so I had somebody to draw from.
And I think about,
when the show started airing,
I wouldn't let him watch it.
And some years had gone by, and he was, like,
"Mom, why does everybody at my school know Boondocks,
"and my momma is in it and I don't know?"
So I had to start lettin' him watch it.
So sometimes,
for his friends that I like,
you know, we'll surprise them on their birthday,
and I'll leave them a message as Riley.
When I auditioned, I got the part of Riley,
and then, they were trying to cast Huey,
and so, I would read the dialogue on the auditions
for all the Hueys that came in.
So it was, like, a month
of auditioning people for Huey,
and because during the audition I was hearing
all of Aaron's notes regarding Huey for the longest,
I was, just, like, let a sista get a shot!
Let me see if I can do 'em both.
And we did, and here we are.
- That child that's comin',
is your grandchild.
I don't understand you.
It's your grandchild.
What difference does it make - Ooh, Kiki!
How it gets here?
The child ain't got nothin' to do with that!
- Wow!
- Ain't none of us got nothin' to do with that!
- That child, - That child,
- That child (mumbling in tears)
- So that was it, right?
Aunjanue Ellis! (exhales)
My God!
She is amazing!
I thought about,
that scene was like eight people in that scene.
And she did her coverage last
and still gave that, ugh,
monster performance.
She's, just, she's amazing!
So, thought about that,
and then I thought about,
I didn't realize that Al Green, "For the Good Times"
is playing in the background! (laughing)
Yes!
We, the Rivers!
Best family ever!
Yeah, I mean I have no regrets.
No regrets.
Everything was exactly what it was supposed to be,
even if it didn't feel like it in the moment.
Um, I walked away having learned something
about myself,
or someone else,
or just life in general.
I...
I appreciate my career.
Nothing but gratitude.
For those people that say, "I wanna be just like Regina,"
I would say, "You wanna be just like you!"
You know, no one can, um...
There's a song by Steve Arrington, by this group,
called "Slave."
And one of the songs says, "Nobody can be you but you."
So I would say, uh,
yeah, lean into all that's great within you.
And if I'm inspiring you, that's pretty awesome!
I am Regina King,
and I am officially well seasoned!
(Upbeat jazz playing)