Oscar-winning actress Regina King said placing her hand and footprints outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre was one of the highlights of a glittering career.
The star of films including If Beale Street Could Talk and The Harder They Fall joined some of the industry’s most illustrious names in receiving one of Tinseltown’s oldest honours.
King, 50, was born in Los Angeles and wrote “no place like home” in the cement alongside her hand and footprints in a tradition dating back to 1927.
Speaking shortly after becoming a permanent fixture in the TCL Chinese Theatre forecourt alongside the likes of Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, King said the moment ranked alongside the peaks of her career.
She told the PA news agency: “This is pretty high up there because for me I’m from LA, this is the place where I was born and I’ve known this venue, this space, this ground from just a little girl coming to the movie theatre, to going to premieres here.
“Now I am a part of this space, like really part of this space. So it’s pretty high up there.”
King, whose latest film is the Netflix Western The Harder They Fall, began her career in the 1980s with a starring role in sitcom 227.
She has since become one of Hollywood’s most accomplished stars, with movies including Boyz n The Hood and Jerry Maguire, for which she won a best supporting actress Oscar.
During her handprint ceremony, King was introduced to the stage by filmmaker and fellow Angelino Ava DuVernay.
Holding back tears, she said: “I love my city. This means so much. I’m going to put a little quote in there ‘no place like home’. And a lot of people are going to see this and they’re going to think it comes from The Wizard Of Oz but it comes from my beginning in 227 where the theme started off ‘no place like home’. Because this is home.
“And I’m going to be home forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it but smile and take a picture with it. ”
King also said the honour coinciding with the release of The Harder They Fall was fitting as the film encapsulates much of what has made her career.
She said: “It’s revolutionary but still attentive. It’s familiar, but it’s new. It was a lot of hard work coming from no place but love. And I don’t know if it wraps my career up, my life up, but I think it definitely mirrors it in a lot of ways.”
The Harder They Fall will stream on Netflix from November 3.