Commentary

Award-winning actress Regina King opens up about sleeper hit “If Beale Street Could Talk”

NNPA NEWSWIRE — At 7 p.m. Central time last Wednesday, I was in full-listen mode as King – fresh from her Golden-Globe winning evening – talked about her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk” with more than a thousand faith leaders, community activists, sororities and fraternities and African-American news outlets on the line.

Published

5 years ago

January 14, 2019

Oakland Post

By Dr. Sybil C. Mitchell, The New Tri-State Defender

Regina King makes it easy to say “yes” to an assignment editor’s request for a reporter to join in on a national conference call and listen to an actress talk about her role in a movie.

I had already sounded the “y” in my “yes” before the sentence conveying the opportunity was complete.

At 7 p.m. Central time last Wednesday, I was in full-listen mode as King – fresh from her Golden-Globe winning evening – talked about her role in “If Beale Street Could Talk” with more than a thousand faith leaders, community activists, sororities and fraternities and African-American news outlets on the line.

She was candid from the jump.

“James Baldwin’s book with the same title is a powerful meditation on love,” King said. “It talks about what love really is. Baldwin gives literary voice to the blues. This movie is important because we actually see ourselves on the screen. It is important to tell our stories, to keep telling our stories.”

One key story King is telling is this: Go the see the movie; help get the word out! Let people know that there is a powerful film out about a “black family in the early ‘70s” and how they manage to get through the challenges of life in a world of institutions that are systemically and historically racist. It resonates with themes of family, love and justice.

“Beale Street” made its American debut on December 14 in – get this – just four theatres. That’s right, four. All four, however, were overrun with sold-out audiences, lines wrapped around the block, people seeing it for the first time, fans coming to watch for the fifth time.

It’s the little movie that could.

“No one in Hollywood can say that there is no audience for movies like this that tells our stories,” said King. “We want to see ourselves. We want to see our stories. Our children want to see their stories. My son told me it was the first time he had seen himself on the screen.”

Hundreds of Facebook posts, tweets on Twitter and other social media messages lit up cyberspace during the call as people live-streamed King’s interview and reported that they had already seen “Beale Street” multiple times.

King portrays Sharon Rivers, Ernestine and Tish’s mother and Joseph’s wife. The facts of her own journey suggests that King has been preparing for the role all of her life.

“I am a mother, and I have an amazing mother and grandmother who pushed my sister and I to dream big,” she said. “They understood the spirit that was in us at an early age.”

Director Barry Jenkins adapted a screenplay from Baldwin’s book and then set course for a movie on the big screen. Produced by Plan B Entertainment, the film made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2018.

King racked up a Golden Globe award as “The Best Supporting Actress.” In her acceptance, she thanked Jenkins for telling the poignant story. She vowed as a producer and director, herself, to make sure all her future projects involve at least 50 percent women.

The tone for the movie was set at the top, King said on the call.

“Barry from the very beginning created a loving and trusting environment. From that day when the cast first met, we fell into our roles. It was like our roles chose us.

“And shooting that scene around Beale Street, when we took breaks, we didn’t go back to our rooms. We went upstairs in the brownstone and just talked and shared our stories. You will see real relationship in our performances.”

Sharon and Joseph Rivers create a loving, nurturing household, King said.

“You see the love on screen between a black father and his daughter. We see a young man who so gently and tenderly loves this young woman. The take-away is that throughout the years, we are reminded that it has been our love for one another that has gotten us through.”

April Reign, the activist who started “#OscarsSoWhite,” also praised the film on the 45-minute conference call.

“This movie is fierce, tender and unapologetically black,” said Reign. “It is a portrait of every strong mother we have known. Let’s encourage everyone to go and see ‘Beale Street.’

“But once you see it, you’ll come running back for more. Get lost in the magic that is James Baldwin brought to life by Barry Jenkins.”

For those on the conference call, the resolve was this: “Let’s build a movement around ‘Beale Street.’”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Donna Jones Baker retiring as president/CEO of Urban League

Don't Miss

‘Nobody’s at the Switch’ as CBS Announces Election Coverage Team Says African Americans

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Commentary

Commentary: Republican Votes Are Threatening American Democracy

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We needed to know the blunt truth. The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening. That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

By Emil Guillermo

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We needed to know the blunt truth.

The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

And to save it will require all hands on deck.

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening.

That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

No man is above the law? To the majority of his supporters, it seems Trump is.

It’s an anti-democracy loyalty that has spread like a political virus.

No matter what he does, Trump’s their guy. Trump received 51% of caucus-goers votes to beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who garnered 21.2%, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who got 19.1%.

The Asian flash in the pan Vivek Ramaswamy finished way behind and dropped out. Perhaps to get in the VP line. Don’t count on it.

According to CNN’s entrance polls, when caucus-goers were asked if they were a part of the “MAGA movement,” nearly half — 46% — said yes. More revealing: “Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?”

Only 29% said “yes.”

That means an overwhelming 66% said “no,” thus showing the deep roots in Iowa of the “Big Lie,” the belief in a falsehood that Trump was a victim of election theft.

Even more revealing and posing a direct threat to our democracy was the question of whether Trump was fit for the presidency, even if convicted of a crime.

Sixty-five percent said “yes.”

Who says that about anyone of color indicted on 91 criminal felony counts?

Would a BIPOC executive found liable for business fraud in civil court be given a pass?

How about a BIPOC person found liable for sexual assault?

Iowans have debased the phrase, “no man is above the law.” It’s a mindset that would vote in an American dictatorship.

Compare Iowa with voters in Asia last weekend. Taiwan rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing and elected pro-democracy Taiwanese vice president Lai Ching-te as its new president.

Meanwhile, in our country, which supposedly knows a thing or two about democracy, the Iowa caucuses show how Americans feel about authoritarianism.

Some Americans actually like it even more than the Constitution allows.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1.