Regina King Dishes On Her New Orleans Accent In ‘The Harder They Fall’

Believe it or not, Regina King wasn’t a fan of westerns before saying yes to a role in The Harder They Fall.

The Oscar-winner told us it was the opportunity to work with director Jeymes Samuel on his directorial debut and his vision to do something different in the genre.

The film, starring Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors, Zazie BeetZ and Delroy Lindo, also marked a reunion for Elba, King and Lindo, who last appeared together in 2008’s This Christmas.

King said she spent a lot of time developing “Treacherous” Trudy Smith, a character based on a little-known woman named Gertrude Smith.

“I directed One Night in Miami right before this in New Orleans, and there is something about New Orlean that Louisiana dialect that I just love,” she said. “I can speak to someone from New Orleans all day.”

“Speaking to James, we kind of felt like truly was a nomad, she traveled so much of the country, and when you do travel the country and spend time in different places, just as human beings, we tend to pick up things,” she added. “I kind of infuse that in Trudy and the inspiration was New Orleans.”

Besides the dialect, King and the cast underwent a cowboy camp, learning how to rope and ride horses. Beetz reflected on her training for the film and the intense choreography for her fight scenes with King.

“There was a large stunt team involved. There’s like flipping and stuff in it, and so Regina and I stepped aside for those moments and let the professionals take over,” she joked.

“But I feel like the core of our hand to hand combat moment we were in the trenches trying to get this fight to look and feel right, and it felt very like Girl Power-Y at the end.”

“The Harder They Fall” is now playing in select theaters and begins streaming Nov. 3 on Netflix.