-Our first guest tonight is
an Academy Award and Emmy-winning actress
who you know from films like
"If Beale Street Could Talk" and shows
such as "The Leftovers" and "Watchmen."
Her film "One Night in Miami"
is available on Amazon Prime video now.
Let's take a look.
-Can't nobody else understand
what it's like being one of us, except us.
-One of us?
-You know.
Young, Black, righteous,
famous, unapologetic.
♪♪
-There's going to be a target on your back.
-It was going to be there, anyway!
This ain't about civil rights.
Those activists ain't do squat about them four little girls
that got bombed in Alabama.
That's why they preaching to a deaf congregation,
because they are giving Black people what they really want.
♪♪
-What's that?
♪♪
-What you have,
but take for granted.
♪♪
Power.
-Please welcome back to the show Regina King.
How are you, Regina?
-I am doing alright, Seth.
How are you?
-Good. I would love to say
it's nice to have you here,
but, of course, "here" is in quotes
and this is now the second time
you have joined us remotely since this all started
and so I just wanted to say thank you
and how much we appreciate that.
-Well, thanks for having me.
I can't believe that like
our anniversary is on Zoom again.
It is very strange.
Something that was not strange for me because, look,
you are a very accomplished dramatic actor
and, of course, a director, now, as well.
I am of an age where I know you as a comedian, first,
and it was so thrilling to watch you on "SNL."
Did you enjoy that experience?
-I did. I did.
I mean, just all praises to the writers and the actors
and just the entire production team.
I was just blown away.
I feel like I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever in my life
say anything about something
that may not be funny to me on "SNL"
because what they do to bring that show to us every week
is nothing short of a miracle.
-Yes. I had the same experience when I started working there
because I think, like everybody, the show,
we feel like it belongs to us and you're critical of it.
You love it and then there are other times you don't.
And then, you show up and you try to do that job
and you think, "Oh, okay, okay, I'll shut up now."
-Shut all the way up.
[ Laughter ]
-You were nominated for a Golden Globe
and you looked wonderful in your beautiful dress,
but your dog Cornbread kind of stole the day.
Are you jealous of how much attention Cornbread got?
-I am not.
Listen, Cornbread is 15 years old.
He deserves all the attention, to just be hanging in there
and representing for the senior dogs.
[ Laughter ]
-Well, you did a great job
and you did a fantastic job with the film.
This is based on a stage play.
Were you familiar at all with the play
before it first came across your desk?
-I was not. I was not.
Reading the screenplay was my introduction to it.
I guess I must've been off, working somewhere,
because, usually, you know, I'm up-to-date,
when it comes to the theater scene in L.A.
because it's so small.
But I read the screenplay,
which was written by Kemp Powers,
who also adapted his play to the screenplay,
and I was just blown away.
-So this is an evening that happened,
but it's obviously a fictionalized account of it
and it's about four very famous Black men in the '60s.
And, even though it takes place in the '60s,
it does obviously tie in to what we're going through right now.
Do you feel as though you were both making a movie
about the past, but also that it was very urgent,
in regards to what's happening in the present?
-Yeah, I mean, you know, actually,
that was one of the things that appealed to me,
when I read this script, that it was relevant.
I mean, unfortunately,
these conversations are conversations
that Black people have been having
before that night in 1964.
And so the the dialogue, the story was always relevant,
but it was just what happened last year --
we were in the middle of a pandemic
when George Floyd's murder was captured on video
and the world was watching.
So, it made something that's always been relevant
for Black people urgent for the film to come out.
-I imagine one of the trickiest things about a film like this
and directing it is getting the casting right
because you're dealing with four, you know,
historical figures that everybody
has seen so much film on
and other actors have played so famously.
You nailed it, but was that something that,
when you first took it on, you knew would be a challenge?
-I did. I did, but I knew that it was an opportunity.
Look, I'm an actor.
I love to act.
I love being part of the thespian community.
so I knew that it was going to be for actors that understood
the responsibility that they were taking on
and that was the biggest joy for me,
just watching Kingsley, Leslie, Aldis, and Eli just shine.
I felt like I was the fifth wheel.
I've never been so excited to be a fifth wheel.
[ Laughs ]
-It really is great and, you know,
obviously, we've seen a lot of these,
you know, figures in biopics before
and I will say, as a viewer,
it's really nice to just watch them
in sort of one snapshot of time
and I think that makes it also more, you know,
unique than anything we've seen before as well.
As someone who's been in show business
for as long as you have,
I'm wondering if directing was something,
you know, when you were a kid --
and, obviously, you know,
you started in in sitcoms --
did you think, "Oh, I would love to be
behind the camera one day,"
or was that something that sort of took a longer time
to come to that conclusion?
-It took a longer time to come to that conclusion.
I think I was picking up things along the way.
You know, sometimes you don't realize you're the sponge
until later on in life.
But I'm glad that I was absorbing all
of this information and I've been with --
I've had just the blessing
to work alongside some real powerhouses
and I feel like I was being groomed,
if you will, if you could say that in a positive light.
-Let's take it back. Let's take back that word
[ Laughter ] and use it as a positive.
-Yes. Yes.
And I would say, somewhere around 30, 35,
is when I just really started taking in all of the different
jobs, if you will, that bring a story to us, you know.
So often, we only hear about the director,
we only hear about the actors.
But I started seeing how the director gets the opportunity
to work with everyone --
the production designer, the wardrobe designer, the DP.
And just I would say around that time
is when I really started paying attention
and feeling like it was something that, you know,
a person that's enthusiastic about control,
might be a good space to be.
[ Laughs ]
-You're doing something else that,
as soon as I heard you were doing it, I thought,
"Oh, that's a very good use of one's time,
during trying times,"
which is you're watching a lot of old "Golden Girl" episodes.
-Yes.
[ Laughter ]
Gives me just joy.
It just makes you feel like, you know,
everything may be alright in the world, one day.
-You know, when I watch an old "Golden Girls" episode,
my takeaway is, "This script must've been eight pages,"
because the laughs between the punch lines are so long.
[ Laughing ]
I'm like, "How? This must be the shortest script ever."
It's just like setup, punch line,
laugh for a full minute,
and then they move on. -But they're genuine laughs.
They are genuine laughs.
It's not like, you know, a laugh track.
That's people cracking up.
-Yeah, it really is.
I mean, again, your cast of four does a great job
in "One Night in Miami," but that's another cast of four
that I would put them up against --
the Golden Girls versus "One Night in Miami."
[ Laughs ]
-Hey, that's a pretty solid cast to go up against.
-In the brackets in the March Madness
of Best Four-Person Cast.
Hey, thank you so much. It's always
so lovely to see you.
I really appreciate your time.
-Always so good to see you, too.
Give your wife a hug for me!
-I will, of course. She'll be thrilled to get it.
"One Night in Miami" is available
on Amazon Prime video now.