“Live TV, here we go,†Regina King says, tripping slightly as soon as she arrived on the stage for Sunday’s 93rd Annual Academy Awards. “Jesus, I made it.†The One Night in Miami director opened the evening’s Oscars by grabbing a statuette and taking a long, sumptuous, Steven Soderbergh–worthy stroll into Los Angeles’ Union Station, complete with onscreen credits for the event. As the actress instructed the ceremony’s attendees, “Think of this as a movie set†— in case you hadn’t picked up on the night’s theme just yet.
But before offering further instructions on the evening’s mask protocol, King paused to reflect on the death of George Floyd and last week’s guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin. “We’re mourning the loss of so many,†she says. “And I have to be honest, if things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels for marching boots. Now, I know a lot of you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you, but, as a mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live, and no amount of fame and fortune changes that.â€
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