Regina King has compared winning an Oscar to smoking marijuana for the first time

Speaking to Kelly Ripa on her Let's Talk Off Camera podcast, she said: "I'm just gonna say it. If anyone has ever smoked weed before, the very first time you ever smoke weed, everything is kinda like you're looking through a crystal ball and everything is kind of hypersensitive that very first time.

"Those of us who still continue to smoke weed, you know, you're chasing that... And every now and then, you'll get a new strain and you're like, 'Oh, wow, that feels close to the first time or whatever,' but [it's] nothing like that first time.

"[Winning an Oscar was] almost kind of like that. Like, I can hear the hairs on my arms raised. I can hear what it sounded like for my mom to grab my hand. Like, my senses were really, really, really elevated in that moment.

"I can fully remember just how sweet it was for Chris [Evans] to help me up the steps. I remember looking at him... and it was almost a moment of him lookin' in my eyes [to say], 'You got it. It's happening and you got it, go on.' "

Regina recalled trying to be sensitive and maintain a neutral expression when the time came for the winner to be announced in her category.

She said: "The camera is sitting there waiting to find out who's won.

"I may have been thinking, 'Keep your face straight if you don't win. Don't look salty,' because, you know, of course we wanna win, you know?"

"No one [takes] a role with, at least I believe, with the thought of 'I'm doing this because I want to win an Academy Award.' But, you know, when you get nominated, or when you get part of the conversation, [it's] 'oh s***, okay. I'm showing up, you know, for this.'

"And so the last thing I would want anyone to think is that I feel like anyone deserves it less or more.

"We are in a cancel culture right now and so it's, you know, one little... if I was looking candid like my mom, someone would have said it was an eye roll."

"I think I had that moment like, 'Keep your freaking face straight. Don't let disappointment register in any way. This is the time that all that you learned to do as an actor, girl, this is the time that you use it.'"

But Regina's calm demeanour changed when she realised she had won.

She added: "It's when they say your name. That's when it all goes into the hypersensitive. It all goes into, whooooooooaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh."