Winning a Golden Globe trophy Sunday night for her stunning work as Sharon Rivers in If Beale Street Could Talk, Regina King used her acceptance speech to talk about how she is using her platform to work to change the industry.
King says in all of her future projects she will make sure that at least 50 percent of the hires are women and is challenging others to do the same.
She said, “So often…everyone out there, they hear us on the red carpet, and they say of celebrities, we’re using the time to talk about ourselves, when we’re on our soapbox and using a moment to talk about the systemic things that are going on in life. ‘Times Up’ x2. The reason why we do this is because we understand that our microphones are big and that we’re speaking for everyone. And I just want to say that I’m going to use my platform right now to say in the next two years, everything that I produce, I’m making a vow — and it’s going to be tough — to make sure that everything that I produce that it’s 50 percent women. And I just challenge anyone out there who is in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries, I challenge you to challenge yourself and stand with us in solidarity and do the same.”
The poignant speech caused NBC to cut the music from the background near the end of her comments and drew rave applause from the audience.
In 2018, inclusion riders became notable once Frances McDormand referenced them in her Oscars speech. Since then, production companies have announced they are implementing inclusion riders. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society was one of the first.
Aside from producing many projects and directing episodes of television, King will also star in Damon Lindelof’s adaptation of Watchmen, coming to HBO this year.