Regina King & Uzo Aduba Honor Breonna Taylor On Emmy Night – Backstage

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read

The theme of tonight’s Primetime Emmys was ‘Come As You Are’ in the pandemic, and for Limited Series Watchmen Lead Actress winner Regina King and Limited Series Mrs America Supporting Actress winner Uzo Aduba it meant using their fashion to bring light to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Both winners wore T-shirts honoring Breonna Taylor, the 26-year old African American medical technician who was fatally shot by three plainclothes Louisville Metro Police who raided her apartment, executing a no-knock search warrant.

King wore a shirt with Taylor’s face with the phrase “SAY HER NAME” in capital letters.

Speaking about her fashion choice in the backstage virtual Emmys pressroom, King said “The cops haven’t been held accountable” in Taylor’s killing.

“She represents decades, hundreds of years of violence against Black bodies, Breonna Taylor does does. And the show, I felt this was a perfect wearing Breonna’s likeness, representing her and her family, and the stories that we were exploring, that we were presenting, that we were holding a mirror up to in Watchmen; it felt appropriate to represent with Breonna Taylor,” said King tonight.

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Aduba, who wore a shirt emblazoned with Breonna Taylor’s name, was alerted by the press about King’s inspired fashion choice.

Said the Mrs. America Emmy winner, “I am amazingly touched to hear that. Regina is who she says she is, which is my favorite thing about her, because she is a do-er. I loved when I saw her shirt and standing in it with such strength and power that we all know that she has. She’s a born leader and it made me so happy to see her wear it and to know that we are saying her name.”

King added, “When you’ve decided to take on this thing called, this career choice called thespian — being part of the thespian community, if you have some success in it, you do have a platform. I love being a Black woman, I love being a Black girl, and I love being American, and it’s important that people see all of those things together. When you have the platform to celebrate that, the platform to remind those who tend to look past Black girls, Black women, and you have the opportunity to celebrate, I will do it a million times over, you seize it. When I saw my sister Uzo had on this same shirt, it was a confirmation that this was right.”

Despite Watchmen creator Damon Lindelof, after the HBO limited series’ ten Emmy wins, saying he wants to hand off season 2 to another creator, King has no intention of taking the reigns without him. King recently world premiered her feature directorial debut One Night in Miami at the Venice Film Festival. The movie continued on to play TIFF.

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