Regina King, welcome to
The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Yeah. Man. Hi, Trevor.
(laughs) Hi, Regina. How are you?
I... You know, I'm... I am...
I am just trying to bend with the wind.
Right, right. I feel like that's the motto of your life,
ever since I've had the pleasure
of knowing you from afar as a person,
and then being able to stand next to you
while you're holding golden awards at awards shows.
You have always seemed like somebody who goes,
"I'm doing what I can do, you know,
"defined by the circumstances that I'm limited to.
But I'm just gonna keep doing what I can do."
And, man, have you been doing it.
Well, thank you, but, yeah, that is kind of my mantra.
I'm just doing my best.
Doing your best is an understatement, Regina.
You have an Oscar, you have a Golden Globe.
You have a record four primetime Emmy Awards.
You are doing more than everyone's best, in my opinion.
-Ah. -And now you're stepping into the world
of directing in a major way.
Most people direct, and we don't know that they're directing.
You stepped in and already people are saying, "Man,
this, uh... this film could be in the world of Oscars."
Before we talk about the buzz, let's talk about the story,
One Night in Miami. Four legends.
What did you think that you could tell in this story
that would just give us, I guess, a reimagining
of who all these people are?
Yeah, I think more than anything for me,
while we know that this night actually happened,
the conversations are imagined by Kemp Powers,
who wrote the script, who is an amazing writer.
Um, he also cowrote and directed Soul.
So he's kind of out there making big things happen.
But, um, I think for me, it was
that he put conversations
that are conversations that Black people,
Black men have been having for so long,
into the mouths of these larger-than-life men.
-Right. -Who-who we know just throughout interviews,
uh, definitely have these... the opinions
that are expressed in our film.
So I just, for me, I was like, "Wow.
"To be able to humanize them in a way
that they are speaking for so many men."
It just... It was... just grabbed me,
just jumped out off the page at me.
Yeah, I mean, you've made a film about people
who each have a film about their own lives.
That's how powerful and momentous
their existence was on this planet, you know?
Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X,
all in one room on one night
having a conversation about their visions for the future
and the way they see the world and the way they see life.
Now, I know that this was... this was also a play.
And I know that taking a play and turning it
into a film can often be a really daunting task,
because, you know, a play has everyone there
sitting in one place, and you don't have to do much,
because that's the... that's the... you know, the forum.
That's the platform.
You have to direct
to make one space feel like it's going somewhere.
Talk me through some of those challenges, and how you thought
about making a movie that doesn't go anywhere,
and yet, takes us everywhere.
Well, I think, I...
The dialogue was the star of the film to me.
And, you know, so Kemp did all of that heavy lifting.
And I just always felt like the right actors,
powerful actors who really understood,
uh, what they were taking on
would be half the battle, you know, right there.
And then, from there, just, I wanted
to get out of the way of-of... of the story.
You know, like, sure, I wanted it to be a visual experience,
but not so much that the camera would distract.
So, yeah, just lots of conversations
and preparations ahead of time
to just allow the dialogue to be the star,
and allow everything else
to just kind of cradle that dialogue
and just allow the audience to sit there in it
and-and be... be there with these men.
One of the things I've truly appreciated about you
throughout your career is that you are an artist.
There's no denying, though,
that you are also a trailblazer.
You know, this movie was the first movie
by an African-American woman director
to get into the Venice Film Festival, which seems crazy.
I mean, it's 2021 now.
But this was the first time that that ever happened.
And so I'm sure a lot of people look to you and go like,
"Man, okay, you're making films now for all the Black women
"and you-you succeed for all Black women,
and you fail for all Black women."
How are you able to create creatively
without stressing about that burden that you can feel,
you know, some sections of society putting on you,
whether it's the media or whoever it may be going like,
"Regina, you do this for every Black woman,
or you fail for every Black woman"?
Yeah, I mean, it's-it's kind of like always a-a... a dance,
'cause it's very easy to just get consumed
with that energy or that, um, narrative.
That... It does exist. I mean, it is true.
I mean, we don't get the opportunity
that gives Black people to fail up, you know.
If-if we mess up, you know, that's pretty much it.
Usually, we don't get another chance.
So, I-I do, um, uh,
recognize that.
And sometimes it does feel like...
-Um, it feels kind of weighty sometimes. -Right.
You know, I speak to other people
that I know feel the same way.
But in that, I feel like there...
God wouldn't have brought me to it
-if I wasn't gonna get through it. -Right.
So I know that I must have been designed for this moment.
So I'm figuring it out along the way
when those anxious moments come.
And in all actuality,
I'm still always getting inspiration from...
from... all over.
I mean, like, just... I just got introduced
to this 14-year-old girl--
I think her name is Kalia Love Jones--
who, um, did her first short,
and it's in the Pan African Film Festival,
and the Urbanworld Film Festival,
and that is inspiring to me.
You know, it's like, I... I'm just always...
trying to plug in, wherever I can plug in
and-and pick up some-some energy
to, um, keep the trajectory being an upward one
and not, uh, lateral.
I've said this to you before, and I'll say it again.
I don't know how you stay as humble as you are
with all the gold trophies you have.
I would have all the trophies in my car all the time,
and I'd just be cutting people off
holding trophies out the window
if anybody said anything.
Because you truly are a legend who is still living,
and we're excited for the next chapter
of your journey, which is directing.
Regina King, thank you so much for joining me on the show.
I appreciate you, Trevor Noah.