Kali Reis hits hard. That's true whether he co-stars alongside Jodie Foster in the fourth season of HBO's “True Detective” as a troubled state trooper investigating a mysterious mass murder just as Alaska has entered its darkest time of the year, or as a professional boxer with 19 victories. and two world weight championships under her belt. She also contains multitudes, with Cape Verdean ancestry and as a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag tribe whose husband is Jewish and Sicilian. (On vacation, she jokes, “We have seven fish, the dreidels, and a lot of candles.”)
Reis hopped on Zoom with The Sobre to talk about the light in the darkness, indigenous stories, and standing up to the world's bullies.
As a Rhode Island native, you know New England winters, but were you prepared for the bitterness of Iceland and Alaska, where “True Detective: Night Country” was filmed?
I know what it's like to go through brutal cold. That helped me prepare, but it was still very cold. Iceland hits differently with the wind. Now I love warm socks. We're set in Alaska and I absolutely admire and love the indigenous people who have lived there for centuries. They are real tough guys, the way they survive.
How much of the appeal of your role as Evangelina Navarro Was it the ability to lean into playing an indigenous character?
I am not Iñupiat, so this was an opportunity for me to get out of my own community. This was an opportunity for me to learn. I do not speak for all indigenous people, especially as someone of mixed race. But it was an opportunity to do it the right way.
What has bothered you in the past about other depictions of indigenous culture and life that you've seen?
All the cowboys and Indians, the savages, are beyond the film industry. The representations bother me: the one-dimensional view in which a native is always the same: drug addict, alcoholic, battered woman. We are fun, we have a daily life, we are trying to fight for our culture, our lands, our people, and we still live in 2024. We are not in the 1500s or 1600s, we are here and we still go through Generational Trauma. The natives are hilarious. We love telling stories. We are not silent. We are neat. That's the kind of thing I want to see now.
And how does this season's showrunner, Issa L, feel?eitherfish, did you handle all that?
He did a really good job, including seeing what is practical and that there is a reason for how we think and believe. I always say: “The land does not belong to us, we belong to it, and the people of those indigenous lands know what they need.”
“She takes her job very seriously, she takes her preparation very seriously. But once you get there… it's like, 'Let's see what we can do,'” Kali Reis, right, says of working with Jodie Foster.
(Michele K. Short / HBO)
You're reasonably new to acting, so what did you learn working with veteran Jodie Foster?
I didn't even realize that many of my best films featured it. The closer I got to going to Iceland, the more nervous I got. But it was amazing to work with her. I learned a lot. She is hilarious. You will hear her say: “This is really Navarro's story. “I want to support that.”
What did you learn from watching it?
Don't take things so seriously. He takes his work very seriously, he takes his preparation very seriously. But once you get there, and I know this from boxing, it's like, “Let's see what we can do.” I'm a Virgo and I try to make everything very competitive. but with her I [learned to be] Like, “Hey, relax, man.”
You have been a star in the boxing ring. Why try to act?
I have always been interested in acting creatively. I would raid my mom's closet and create these characters. He needed a break from boxing for health reasons. When I was about 22, I went through menopause and then 10 years later things woke up again, so I was dealing with the consequences of that. All year 2021, when I was training for those last two fights, I lost too much weight and too fast, things didn't go like that. [the right] hormonal levels. My body was saying, “Have a seat.” Things have been resolved now.
So you're not retired from boxing?
You don't know how to retire. I haven't officially hung up [my gloves] above. Acting has come to the fore and is something that has more longevity than combat sports. There are one or two fights that I would get out of my chair for.
I got punched in the face once when I was a kid and that time it was more than I ever wanted. So why did you play a sport where you get hit? to batch?
I used to fight in the street when I was a child. He would try to fight the bully who was harassing the children. I do not like that. Getting punched is as silly as it sounds, but it doesn't hurt. It is rather the art of doing it. It's like thinking on tiptoe. It's not fun to get punched in the face, but it's a lot of fun to be able to dance and create that whole story.
