Starlet ON THE RUN

In her latest film, Regina King embodies an outlaw in the Wild West – bringing guts, glory, and, most of all, charisma.

- FARAH KHALFE

Hollywood veteran Regina King is on a winning streak – and that’s putting it lightly. In 2019, she won her first-ever Oscar and Golden Globe for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk. Then in 2020, she took home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for her character Angela Abar in Watchmen. That same year, she made her directorial film debut with One Night in Miami, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival (the festival’s first film directed by a Black woman) and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Now, she’s back on screen again and her new film is already causing a stir. The Harder They Fall, in which she stars alongside Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz, is a new-age Western action-packed with rifles, horses, trench coats, and cowboy boots.

Regina assumes the role of ‘Treacherous’ Trudy Smith, a no-nonsense member of Rufus Buck (played by Idris Elba)’s fearsome crew.

The intensity of the film, however, was somewhat offset by the laid-back nature of the interview I had with her. As she logged on to Zoom Meet – me in Cape Town, while she sat on the other side of the globe – her cool demeanour immediately rubbed offon me, and I opened by asking about her wellbeing in such uncertain times.

“I think I’m at a place where we all are,” she says. “Trying to manage anxiety and waiting in anticipation for what’s going to happen next.” To help her cope, she reveals she started a garden – a project through which she could channel all her pent-up angst and unease.