Regina King: It's an honest place to be if you don't understand someon...

I'm just really thankful to have the chance to portray a character you don't see every day.

Regina King

chance character

I never really loved school through junior high, but then I started running track my freshman year, and I was just like, 'Wow, this is cool!

Regina King

running years school

My mother was a single mom, and most of the women I know are strong.

Regina King

mom strong mother

My biggest challenge will be to play the totally submissive woman. It takes a toll on you when you play someone who's far removed from your personality.

Regina King

personality challenges play

I've tried to be flexible in my career by doing a little bit of everything and that's worked for me.

Regina King

flexible careers littles

Children at certain ages have distinct actions, and boys at certain ages have a particular way of acting too.

Regina King

age boys children

I watch ESPN all day. If you come into my trailer, ESPN is on. That's the first thing I do when I leave the set.

Regina King

espn watches firsts

Divorce is the hardest obstacle I've had to overcome in my life. I would like to believe that most people don't get married anticipating divorce. When I reached that crossroad, I felt like such a failure. After years of therapy together, I realized that staying together was emotionally destructive. My husband didn't want the divorce, but I did. So there was a lot of bitterness initially. Although we are still divorced, we still call each other "family." It was a journey to get there, but it's a beautiful place to be.

Regina King

husband beautiful believe

I learned a lot from my Mom. My favorite lesson: remember there is no such thing as a certain way to parent and to remember that you are learning along with your child - it's ok to make mistakes.

Regina King

mom mistake children

I've always been selective about materials I choose anyways. The incoming calls haven't been projects that I necessarily want to do. Now I can always be called "Emmy winner Regina King."

Regina King

winner kings want

I recognize the amount of time that it takes as a director. I made the choice to stop taking roles outside of L.A. because I didn't want to miss any of my child's life.

Regina King

choices missing children

I can work inside the boundaries of Erika Murphy, or whoever the character is. It's fun to create somebody that's not you, that doesn't exist.

Regina King

boundaries fun character

I had been going on auditions and things like that since I was probably 10 - 11 years old.

Regina King

auditions years

"Legally Blonde 2" wasn't written specifically for a black woman.

Regina King

black-women black blonde

"Southland" was not written for a black woman.

Regina King

black-women written black

The good news for me is that I have an amazing team behind me, and they've been with me for 20 years now - almost 20 years. And they have seen me as an actress, not necessarily just a black actress. So I have been lucky enough for them to see me that way.

Regina King

black team years

When you look at "American Crime" and you have the character Terri LaCroix is a pharmaceutical executive - why does that character always have to be white?

Regina King

white doe character

We play different people - our art form is performance art - so unless you're playing the same type of person, I don't know if you could improve or make it worse.

Regina King

play people art

I try to eat well, but I don't deny myself the foods I love. I just eat them in moderation.

Regina King

moderation deny trying

I try to turn most things into an exercise. Sometimes, I can't get a workout in, so I will do things like park further away at the grocery store or take the stairs. It may not be much, but I've convinced myself it does something. Mind over matter. Ha! But my regular workouts consist of hiking, Cardio Barre, and light weight training.

Regina King

hiking workout exercise

It's an honest place to be if you don't understand someone else's experience, but there's no way for the other to understand if a conversation or an explanation isn't made.