HFPA Member Says She Didn’t Mistake Daniel Kaluuya for Leslie Odom Jr.
Written by SOURCE on April 27, 2021
A member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association took to Twitter Monday to apologize and explain what led many viewers to think she mistook Daniel Kaluuya with another Black actor.
“I’ve been following you since the beginning of your career, and I was wondering what it meant for you to be directed by Regina, what this means for you at this time with the world and the state that it’s in?” South African journalist Margaret Gardiner asked Kaluuya on Sunday.
After the actor asked for clarification, Gardiner rephrased her question, saying, “I was wondering what it meant for you to win with the world and the state that it’s in in the moment?”
Gardiner claims she included Regina King in her question in an effort to get his response to her not being nominated for Best Director for One Night in Miami and maintained that she did not think that the Judas and the Black Messiah actor was Leslie Odom Jr. The Hamilton actor played Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami while Kaluuya played Fred Hampton, the Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.
An interesting stance to take since Kaluuya would probably be better equipped to answer a question about his own Black director Shaka King—no relation to Regina—not being included in the Best Director category. People assumed that Gardiner thought she was talking to Odom Jr. because he was the only Black actor from One Night in Miami who was nominated for an Academy Award. People may have also come to this conclusion since she can be heard asking Kaluuya what it meant to be directed by Regina.
Gardiner said the misunderstanding was due to a sound issue and insisted that she knew she was speaking to Kaluuya and not Odom Jr.
You can read her tweets on the incident below.
