Regina King—Long May She Reign

“There are moments where I feel like when I can look back in life and definitely see that maybe I have more power than I thought I had, and because I didn’t know, I didn’t access it. I didn’t allow myself to utilize it, because I just did not realize it,” King says. “I can’t say that there was a moment, a particular moment, where a light bulb went off that was like, ‘Wow. You’ve got some cachet. You can move something.’ But I will say that thank God for wisdom because I am much more in tune with that power….”

Power, King says, doesn’t have to be hierarchical. It should be about purpose.

“I’m hesitating when I’m speaking about power as it relates to me because I have this concern that it will come off like a dictator or something like that,” King says, articulating the tightrope that so many women in leadership walk in their careers. A hint of smile begins to creep across her lips, and her eyes light up a little.

“There’s that part of me that always wants to be careful not to come off like that, but I am definitely a person that likes to be in control,” she says. “I guess I’m a walking contradiction. I think that’s just human nature.”

To listen to her friends and peers, King is the furthest thing from a dictator. She models leadership that relies on frankness, on upholding a standard of greatness. And that approach has garnered her nearly universal respect.

“Everybody feels like they have a piece of her, right? They feel like they know her, that she’s everybody’s friend,” says actor Holly Robinson Peete. “And I kind of think of her as, like, the female Tom Hanks. You know, there’s no one that doesn’t love Tom Hanks. Regina is that person in this business where everyone is just constantly rooting for her.”

No wonder Captain America himself proffered a steadying arm to King as she climbed the steps of the Dolby Theatre in 2019 to accept her Oscar, one of those Hollywood moments that just made the viewing public swoon for the both of them.

When directing, King uses that social capital to communicate the faith she has in her actors’ ability to meet her high expectations. Being directed by a friend can be tricky, Union says, because they don’t always push back on acting decisions that are lazy or complacent. When it happened on the set of Being Mary Jane, King took Union aside. The two women sat on the steps of Union’s trailer eating dill-flavored sunflower seeds.

“She was like, ‘Gab, cut the shit.’ And I cut the shit,” Union says.