Regina King began the 2021 Oscars with a bang by taking out the time to passionately discuss the recent verdict for the Derek Chauvin trial.
Clearly, this wasn’t the opening that many people expected by miles during the awards ceremony. Derek Chauvin was termed guilty by the jury after less than 24 hours of deliberation, granting a history-making verdict for the US. The former cop from Minneapolis was termed guilty for all of his murder charges, leaving so many people in absolute awe. This includes charges for manslaughter, second-degree unintentional murder, and third-degree murder too.
The famous celeb from ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ began the show’s start by talking about the great fear that many people live with, and that especially includes her as a mum for a Black son.
Regina King mentioned to the audience that was filled with celebrities how it took a year of struggles to reach this verdict and yet we are all still in the center of it. “Each day, we mourn the loss of so many. If I were, to be honest, if things went in a different direction in the past week in terms of the verdict, I would have probably traded in my heels for good old marching boots.
The star also tried to add a little humor to her speech by mentioning how many audience members watching at home are probably going to be reaching for the remote soon as they’re not huge fans of Hollywood preaching morals.
But she felt the need to do her part and address the constant fear she lives with as no amount of fame could ever change that.
After her speech, the actress was greeted with plenty of applause from the audience seated all around, right before she went on to present the awards for the first segment of the ceremony.