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But I was willing to pay any amount of money to work with Regina King.
In her bigBeale Streetscene, King so long a staple of procedural dramas seemed to shrink before Jenkinss lens.
King has no scene partner here, shes just, movingly, a woman considering herself.
King created herBeale Streetcharacter alongside Barry Jenkins.
From there, I just built her with Barry, and his thoughts of his mom.
I saw a flicker of my own mother in Sharon bits of both my grandmothers and all my aunts.
Lets start with first time you met with Barry aboutBeale Street.
He was in Montreal, and I was in Cabo.
We ended up talking for like an hour.
I was like,If its not this one, Barry, its the next one.
Im going to work with you.
From everything Ive read about you, youre a master at development, and matching yourself with like-minded creators.
How do you make it happen?I think its just being honest to what moves me.
I just love art and artists.
In Barrys version, he pulls out the love that just permeates throughout the black experience in Baldwins book.
I was impressed, as I think all of us are, when youre reading anything that Baldwin writes.
His words, theyre just timeless.
Tell me a little bit about figuring out this character.
I was a baby in the 70s, but my mom was Sharon in the 70s.
That wasnt necessarily something in Baldwins book, but Barry and I were talking and looking at hairstyles.
Ernestine [Teyonah Parris] is going to wear an Afro.
Barry was like,Hmmm…
I was like,Oh!
Okay, all right, Barry.
You like that so much that you really are putting me there.
I didnt see it before.
The way Im always rubbing my legs, those mannerisms remind me of my mother.
I dont do that like my mom!
Youre offended by that when youre a kid.
But as you get older you see the beauty of it and joy that it brings.
When did you start to feel that change?
But then when I became a mom, it was like,Ohhhhh, wow.
My mother making all of our food, so I made all my sons food.
I started trying to do things like her, where before I was tryingnotto be like her.
Has your mom seen the movie yet?No, she hasnt.
She has not seen the movie yet.
I wish my grandmother was still here to see it, but my familys really looking forward to it.
Id like to talk more about the wig scene, because it really made me so emotional.
Whats it like holding a close-up for Barry?
Being an actor, thats kind of what you are.
You have to be vulnerable.
When I came into the room, Barrys being his Barry self: All right, Ms. King.
Im like, Man, you making me soundold.
Im just messing with him.
Hes like, You know youre gonna look right down that barrel, just right down.
He knows how to get the bees with the honey.
I just felt okay with him.
I felt safe with him.
What do you think is going through Sharons mind in that moment?
She puts on the wig, then takes it off and takes a long look at herself.
Sharon has never been out of the country.
But that wasnt happening for her.
In a very rare moment, youre seeing Sharon terrified.
I dont feel like this was a woman that gets scared, that scares easy.
I felt like this woman finds comfort in comforting, in solving things for others.
And this is the biggest solve shes ever been faced with.
So shes thinking:Im scared and my armor is down.
Maybe I should just be myself.
Who am I?All of these thoughts.I dont speak the language.
I can hear people in the room next door speaking Spanish.
I was thinking of what would my grandmother feel like.
My grandmother had not been to another country until way later in her life.
If she had to go by herself, what would she be thinking?
you could feel that shrinking in the scene, too.
In every other scene, Sharon is the familys mediator, the negotiator.
Is that your role in your family?No, not really.
In my family, we take turns being that.
Its funny, my son is very good at the balancer.
My mother shares that.
They share that same quality.
You find comfort talking to them.
But I think thats a through-line in all of your work.
Id also like to talk about the birth scene, toward the end of the movie.
Hes not bringing life into the world.
He is, but not with his body.
Filming that, I thought: This is going to be the closest thing Ill get to it.
So, I just leaned into that and settled into just having this special time with KiKi.
Watching this movie felt like a tonic.
This week right now everything with Trump, everything with Kavanaugh, you name it.
How do you feel about it being released in this cultural moment?I agree.
I didnt watch the film yesterday, at the Apollo premiere, but I did see it in Toronto.
I still get emotional thinking about certain parts of it.
We dont get to see ourselves loving on each other like this onscreen.
Especially all of this happening to and between darker skin people.Yeah, yeah.
We dont get to see that.
Its a beautiful thing to witness.
As far as the Rivers family, we just like locked in step as soon as we met.
Barry said it was going to be Colman and I was like, Yes.
The same thing happened with Russell Hornsby inSeven Seconds.
He has that great voice, too.Hes got that daddy voice.
Thats incredible.I guess so.
You started directing five years ago, and did the season finale ofInsecure.
But it is a space that we need to dig into just as a culture.
Maybe Ill tell you when you turn that off.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
