- Regina King spoke to Insider about how she evolved the promise she made at the Golden Globe 2019, when she said that future projects she produced would hire 50% women.
- “No, we can’t [on my new film ‘One Night in Miami,]”King told Insider, who directed the film.” But we definitely try. “
- King revealed that his promise of gender equality has evolved over the years, adding, “It is not respectful to regard everything as a man or a woman.”
- The Oscar winner noted that in her most recent film, “A Night in Miami”, more than 50% of the team “did not identify themselves” as white cisgender men.
- “One Night in Miami”, now in select North American theaters, opens on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
When Regina King received the Golden Globe Award for her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk” in 2019, she ended her touching acceptance speech with this promise:
“For the next two years, whatever I produce – I’m making a promise and it will be difficult – to ensure that everything I produce is 50% feminine,” said King on stage as the room applauded.
Amazon Studios’ next release, “One Night in Miami”, marks King’s first directing effort since that promise and the actor, who also serves as a producer on the project, said his promise was difficult to keep.
“No, we weren’t able to do that,” King told Insider, “but we definitely tried.”
However, this does not mean that King did not make an impact. In fact, you could argue that she took it a step further.
“What we were able to accomplish was that more than 50% of our crew were people who did not identify themselves as white cis men[s], “she emphasized.
King admitted that a lot has evolved since that memorable speech in 2019, including how she sees and understands the genre and its impact on Hollywood.
In the Oscar winner’s speech, she cited Times Up x2, released in 2018 due to the #MeToo movement. The objective is to “double the number of women in leadership and in other spaces where women are underrepresented”, according to the organization’s website.
“From the moment I made this proclamation, if you want, until we actually shot [‘One Night in Miami’] it is not respectful to regard everything as male or female, “she said.” So, going ahead, as I still feel that having more women behind the camera is important, I have to go beyond that. “
“One night in Miami.”
Amazon Studios
Recent studies have shown that women directing the best films are on the rise. According to one of them, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, of the 100 best films of 2019, 10.6% of the best films were directed by a woman, which is significantly higher than 2018, which saw only 4.5%.
Although there is still work to be done. The same study notes that black women held less than 1% of all director positions in 1,300 major films from 2007 to 2019.
Therefore, King’s mission for more women behind the camera is still important, but perhaps even more so is to give work to those who do not represent as cisgender, since the data on that in Hollywood does not exist.
The Oscar-winning and Emmy-winning actress, whose directorial work on “One Night in Miami” – about the fictional encounter between civil rights titans Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke – is receiving acclaim from the Oscars, said that your 50% vote is now a work in progress.
“[It’s] a challenge that I will continue to try to achieve, even as I make adjustments to what that challenge really is “, he concluded.
“One Night in Miami”, now in select theaters across the United States, is available on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.