Regina King Discusses Last-Minute Invitation to Open the 2021 Oscars, Wage Gap, and New Projects
At the 74 annual Cannes Film Festival, Regina King participated in a Kering Women in Motion Talk with Variety‘s executive editor Ramin Setoodeh. In the talk, the 50-year-old American actress and director revealed how she had been asked to open the Oscars the day before the ceremony.
Streamed live on July 16, the Kering Women in Motion Talk with King highlights her contributions and achievements in film. During the discussion, Setoodeh asked King about her experience opening the Academy Awards after questioning if the awards could be in person. King replied, “I literally found out about that being the case the day before.” The actress knew she would be presenting in a category for the Oscars, but she got a phone call later asking if she could open the show. Reenacting the phone call, King stated in disbelief, “And I was like, ‘Open the show? I’m sorry. Open. The show?’ That’s a lot of pressure.”
Really feels like they were flying by the seat of their pants at this year’s Oscars. Thank God she’s fantastic! https://t.co/aHB0Zjo4vg
— Ally Titus (@allykat814) July 16, 2021
Later in the discussion, King opened up about the pay gap between female and male directors. King started by explaining, “when it comes to compensation, parity doesn’t exist as it should.” Afterward, the director gave examples as to how female directors put in just as much work managing the set as males and even more outside of the set. The actress expressed, “With a lot of women doing the same amount of work, we’re also mothers, so we’re doing more work when we get home and managing from the set.”
Since the amazing Regina King is trending I must say again she’s the greatest actress of my 50yrs of life.
— VivirdeNuestro (@NachoFaena) July 17, 2021
Regina King is a four-time Emmy award winner, talented movie director, and producer. Be on the lookout for Regina King’s next project, which will be directing Legendary’s adaptation of the graphic novel Bitter Root.
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