From ‘Girls Trip’ to ‘Support the Girls’
Regina Hall fasts on Mondays.
She shows up to our interview at a restaurant in Sherman Oaks barefaced in a T-shirt and jeans, a bottle of agave syrup in hand to sweeten her tea, the only thing she orders.
“I make plans for my Tuesday food,” she says. “Me and two other friends, we all fast on Mondays. And so by Monday night we’re mad.”
With seven upcoming projects, the veteran actress has very little to be upset about these days.
Up first is Magnolia Pictures’ “Support the Girls,” an indie comedy from director Andrew Bujalski (“Computer Chess,” “Results”), out this month. Hall stars as Lisa, the general manager of Double Whammies, a Hooters-style “breastaurant” in Austin, Texas.
The film is a drastic departure from last year’s “Girls Trip,” that overthe-top studio comedy that became a runaway hit. Comparatively, “Support the Girls” employs light humor to explore gender and racial dynamics in the guise of a workplace comedy. “It was a simple slice-of-life script,” Hall said. “I think that humanity and people’s day-to-day existence — there’s a beauty to that.”
Expect to see a lot more of Hall very soon — she’ll appear in Fox’s politically charged young-adult novel adaptation “The Hate U Give,” due out in October; “Black Monday,” a Showtime series starring Don Cheadle, premiering next year; 2019’s “Shaft” reboot starring Samuel L. Jackson; and “Little,” a sendup of the 1988 Tom Hanks comedy “Big,” that she just wrapped shooting alongside Issa Rae and “black-ish” star Marsai Martin.
We caught up with Hall ahead of the “Support the Girls” premiere. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: What was it like going from an over-thetop studio comedy like “Girls Trip” to an understated indie like “Support the Girls”?
A: I got to work with great women. The girls in “Support the Girls” are young and they had such a freshness in their energy. But I had a blast with my peers (in “Girls Trip”). So they’re different. Both had a story of “everything isn’t what it seems.”
Q: How does working with your contemporaries compare to working with newbies?
A: I was a big fan of (Queen Latifah) and Jada (Pinkett Smith). I didn’t know Tiffany (Haddish), but working with her I became a big fan. And with them I could just be crazy. On “Support the Girls” I felt like I had to be more of an example — I couldn’t be acting wild; they could go home and tell their mama about me.
Q: What was your reaction when you saw what a runaway success “Girls Trip” became?
My dog died five days after that movie came out, so I was really too sad to celebrate it . ... But nowadays when people come up or are, like, “I love the movie,” I love it. I love that women were proud of it, but I really love that black women felt positively and accurately represented.
“It was a simple slice-of-life script. ... There’s a beauty to that.” — Regina Hall, on “Support the Girls”