‘SNL’ Host Regina King Received a Lovely Note Left by Prior Host Dan Levy

One Night in Miami director and Watchmen actress Regina King is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, and last week’s host, Schitt’s Creek creator and star Dan Levy, left her a sweet note of encouragement. King posted a shot of the sticky note to her Instagram stories. “Regina! You got this! Much Love, Dan,” the note read. King celebrated her hosting duty on Twitter as well, posting about her excitement to share the stage with musician Nathaniel Rateliff.

King is currently riding high after garnering a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director for One Night in Miami. King is part of a history-making group, alongside Nomadland‘s Chloé Zhao and Promising Young Woman‘s Emerald Fennell, as the first time three women have been nominated in the Best Director category in the same year.

King told Vogue that the screenplay for One Night in Miami spoke to her immediately. “Oh my God, this is exactly what I’m looking for,” King recalled. “Am I part of, or have I witnessed these conversations? Absolutely. But they’ve always been private – it felt like an opportunity to tell a true sentiment that has existed within the Black community in America forever but through the eyes of these giants. It spoke to me in a very powerful way.”

The actress turned director told The Guardian that it was a story that just had to be told, and she wanted to be the one to tell it. “Being a black woman who has grown up with the majority of the men in her life being black men, I have a connection,” King says. “I feel like we very rarely get the opportunity to see on-screen black men portrayed the way I see them and love them, and with the complexity and the vulnerability and all of those things that make them who they are.”

“These are conversations that have been going on forever,” she continued. “No matter what your economic background, no matter how big your platform is, there are certain things that are very common for a black man and how he is regarded: the mental aerobics, the emotional aerobics that one goes through being black in America, but still finding the courage to smile and love and laugh, with the sordid past and the current space that we’re in.” One Night in Miami is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.