She gets it from her mama! Regina King is one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars, and the Academy Award-winning actress, 48, credits her mother with giving her strength and determination. While recently chatting with Marie Claire for the magazine’s November “Ambition” issue, Regina got candid about her rise to superstardom.

“When that’s your beginning, you’re never really focused on the possibility,” she gushed of the strength her mother, Gloria King, instilled in her. “What my mother filled us with, what she gave us, it feels natural and so intuitive. The Secret was never a secret for me.”

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The Seven Seconds actress explained that growing up, her mother believed the way you thought determined your fate. Therefore, if bad things happened, Regina and her siblings were taught to rewire their thoughts this way they could change the outcome of their destiny. 

Regina also revealed how the strength her mom instilled in her taught her to step outside her comfort zone. “Sometimes we can get so caught up in the moment and we don’t ever leave that moment, and that’s how some people get stuck,” she explained. “I don’t know if you ever heard me say, ‘Comfort zones are where dreams go to die.'”

Although Regina — who is gearing up for her highly anticipated debut in HBO’s Watchmen on October 20 — is the recipient of various accolades, fans feel the actress is just now getting her recognition that was long overdue.

91st Annual Academy Awards, Press Room, Los Angeles, USA - 24 Feb 2019
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While accepting her first-ever Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk in 2019, Regina opened up about closing the gender gap in Hollywood. While making her speech, the proud mom of 23-year-old son Ian Alexander Jr. told the audience how she plans on bridging the gap with her upcoming projects.

“I am going to use my platform to say right now that in the next two years, everything that I produce and I am making a vow and it’s going to be tough to make sure that everything that I produce, that it’s 50 percent women,” she revealed to the audience. “I just challenge anyone out there who is in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries, I challenge you to challenge yourselves and stand with us in solidarity and do the same.”

Regina is such a beacon of strength and hope for other women in this world!