SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Regina King is on a roll.
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JIMMY KIMMEL: The Emmy goes to Regina King, "Watchmen."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Woo, Regina King.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The Emmy goes to Regina King, "American Crime."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Regina King, "American Crime."
PFEIFFER: Last night King won an Emmy Award for her performance as a detective in the HBO series "Watchmen." That makes four Emmys in just six years.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And all four awards were for different roles. King won in 2018 for the Netflix series "Seven Seconds," where she played the mother of a Black teenage boy who was hit by a car by a white policeman. And she won twice for the series "American Crime." One season, she was a corporate exact whose son is accused of rape; in another, a devout Muslim whose brother is caught up in a murder investigation.
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REGINA KING: I am so proud of this show, so proud to be a part of this show, to have the opportunity to tell stories that provoke conversation, necessary conversation.
KELLY: And, oh, yeah, Sacha, she also won an Oscar last year, too.
PFEIFFER: Oh, just that. All those roles touch on the relationship between Black Americans and the criminal justice system. Last year NPR's Sam Sanders asked her if she actively seeks out such roles.
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KING: I don't feel like I'm actively looking for these stories. But I will say that if the story moves me, then - it moves me and feels like it's rooted in truth, even if it's a comedy...
SAM SANDERS: Yeah.
KING: ...Then I'm attracted to it.
SANDERS: Yeah.
KING: I will say because I have been on this earth for 48 years...
SANDERS: Yeah.
KING: ...And so much of that is part of my experience being Black in America...
SANDERS: Yeah.
KING: ...Subconsciously and consciously...
SANDERS: Yeah.
KING: ...I can't help but be attracted to it.
SANDERS: You're drawn to it.
KING: I can't help it.
KELLY: That is Regina King. She won her fourth Emmy last night, tying the record for acting Emmys to a Black performer. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.