HFPA Reporter Apologizes to Daniel Kaluuya, Says She Knows He’s Not Leslie Odom Jr.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association member Margaret Gardiner has addressed the video in which she asks Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya what it meant “to be directed by Regina” (Regina King directed One Night in Miami, starring Leslie Odom Jr., while Shaka King directed Judas and the Black Messiah, which Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for). “I apologize to Daniel Kaluuya for my words,” the South African journalist wrote on Twitter on Monday. “I apologize to anyone else who was offended by them.” Earlier that afternoon, Gardiner tweeted that she was sorry “if it seemed” that she had confused Odom Jr. and Kaluuya, but she still says that it was due to a technical glitch with Zoom. According to Gardiner, she meant to ask two separate questions, one about Regina King not being nominated and one about what Kaluuya’s win meant to the community. Because of a sound issue, she said, she dropped the first part. In the video of the press conference, Kaluuya looks baffled (not unlike his mom when he mentioned his parents having sex) as he processes the mention of Regina King. Gardiner, who began her question by saying she’d followed the actor since the start of his career, tweeted that she has reached out to a DEI expert. In February, Variety reported that the HFPA did not have a single Black journalist among its 87 members — and had not since 2002. Last month, the organization said it would commit to having 13 percent Black membership by next year’s Golden Globes.