Regina King was surprised by her Emmy nomination for “American Crime” — not because she wasn’t proud of her performance as the passionate Muslim sister of a man falsely accused of murder, but because she figured she was too outspoken about the failure of the Television Academy to nominate African-Americans and other minorities.
“There have been so many people of color, not just black people, that … you don’t see them at the Emmys, you don’t see them nominated,” King told TheWrap in a video interview.
“And I wrote a piece about it. I included statistics. So I just kinda figured, once I dropped that in the Huffington Post, I’ll probably never be nominated,” she said.
But she was, one of 10 nominations for John Ridley‘s limited series about race, class and faith in America. Her fellow “American Crime” nominees include lead actors Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton, supporting actor Richard Cabral and the show itself, which is up for Outstanding Limited Series.
King is off to Austin, Texas, to begin shooting Season 2 of “American Crime” this week. As with anthology shows like “American Horror Story,” each season will tell a different story, with some returning actors playing entirely new parts.
This time, King and Andre Benjamin will play the well-to-do parents of a high school student who is involved in a suspected crime. Where the first season dealt with a murder and hinged on issues of race, King says Season 2 takes a different approach.
“The crime in this installment is about a young man who’s accusing someone of rape. It involves a basketball team,” she said. “It also, I feel like, is going to touch a lot on class.”
See the video here.