It’s been a meteoric rise in Hollywood for Kali Reis. Since her breakout role in 2021's Catch the Fair One, the Seaconke Wampanoag actor and sixth-time world champion boxer has garnered critical acclaim, most notably for her portrayal of Trooper Evangeline Navarro in HBO's True Detective: Night Country (2024). In the high-stakes thriller Mercy—coming to theaters nationwide on January 24—Reis stars as officer Jack Diallo in an intense procedural alongside co-star Chris Pratt.
Native News Online’s Elyse Wild talked to Reis about singing the Spice Girls' “Wannabe” on screen, playing law enforcement officers as a Native person, and her on-set snacking habits.
Native News Online: I absolutely loved you in Night Country. I watched it on a flight, watched the whole thing, and there was one scene that really stuck out to me—a solo scene of yours. It’s when you’re driving alone, and then a Spice Girls song comes on, and you’re dancing along and singing.
That really resonated with me because for my work, I’m driving in the middle of nowhere in Indian Country all the time, and then my playlist brings up my song, and I start jamming. From that whole show, that was the scene that really stuck in my heart. I just wanted to share that with you.
Kaili Reis: I’m really happy about that, because I counted down the days when I had to do that. I was like, “Y’all gonna get my best Spice Girls performance. You have no idea.” I was so happy to do that. And the fact that the director chose Spice Girls—it was just right on time. This is the first time I heard that, and I really appreciate it. That just touched my heart.
NNO: In Night Country, your character is Native, and the series tells a very Native story. In Mercy, it’s very different. Your character’s identity is not necessarily part of the plot, or it’s not necessarily overt. When you are playing a character that’s perhaps non-Indigenous or whose identity is not overt, does that change how you approach the character?
KR: I love building backstories. As an artist, you take a part of you into every character. We’re having real reactions in made-up circumstances.
No matter what, I can’t change what I look like. I know that no matter what, whether I’m playing a character or I’m just walking down the street, I will always 100 percent be me. I always 100 percent look the way I do. So even though my identity in Mercy isn’t put out there—we have 90 minutes to try to prove this man’s innocence or not—I always have in the back of my mind, no matter what, visually I am always representing, checking all the boxes I do. That’s something I’m very proud of, and it’s even more prominent when it’s not an Indigenous story, because we don’t just have to tell Indigenous stories, or Cape Verdean stories, Black stories, or whatever community stories. But no matter what story I’m telling, I’m always representing, and that’s something pretty cool. I don’t have to have the backstory or the identity of Jack Diallo present itself, but she’s Indigenous, and she’s playing somebody.
That’s dope. I love seeing that, so I do always have that in the back of my mind. But it doesn’t have to be overt.
I just want to make sure when there is an Indigenous story to be told, that we have countless artists behind the camera, in front of the camera, in the writers' room, makeup, costume—everything. We fill those spots with the correct people. Whatever Indigenous story is being told, we start from the source. We don’t go away from the source.
NNO: In one of the scenes, your character throws hands with one of the suspects that you’re pursuing. I’m assuming that was probably not a stunt double, right? I know you have a background in boxing.
KR: Yes, absolutely. Six-time world champion in boxing!
For insurance purposes, we do have stunt doubles. But because I’m so physical, and because I have the fighting background, I’m the type of person—I’m gonna give it a try, no matter what it is. But especially with the fight sequences, I love doing it. I think my fighting background and knowing my distance is a stunt coordinator’s dream, because I can—you know, I sometimes get too caught up. I’ve been boxing for over 20 years, so sometimes I’ve got to make it look not as “boxy.” But that (scene) was fun. And I got to say, my co-worker was so gracious. He was terrified. He’s like, “Please don’t really hit me.” And I’m like, “I’m not going to really hit you. Just remember the moves and I won’t.” But I think my reaction time and being able to know my distance is actually beneficial to whoever’s on the other end of those punches. It’s fun. I love the physicality of things.
My character in (Mercy) — was the boots on the ground flying around LA trying to help Chris Pratt’s character out with evidence. So it was a lot of fun. I embrace anytime I see fight scenes, running scenes, anything physical in a script. I’m like, “Oh, sign me up.”
NNO: One of the things that I noticed right away is that a lot of your character’s scenes, you’re doing, for lack of a better word, FaceTime acting.
You’re looking into a phone. You’re not necessarily interacting with other actors around you. And it works so well for you because you have such a strong screen presence. Tell me what that’s like. What does that look like behind the scenes when we just see you on the phone like that?
KR: It really comes down to—number one, it’s in our reality. We’re always on our phones, we’re always on laptops, we’re always having Zooms and everything. So it wasn’t a far reach at all. But Chris Pratt and I really made a point to understand our backstories. I wanted to know his. He wanted to know mine. And we also wanted to understand our relationship. What do we do? Do I come over for dinner? Do you rag on me for my character’s dating experience? Like, what happens? We spend a lot of time together as partners, so let’s understand that. When we had these conversations, and we didn’t spend barely any time in the same room acting-wise, it was very relevant. So understanding where we came from as far as what our relationship was—that was so beneficial. It was just like another conversation on the phone with my partner, as Jack Diallo, talking to Chris in a pretty messed-up situation. But also, she had to have her “why” for the decisions that she made. Even though that’s our partner, that really grounded us—it was really key, essential. And also to have conversations with the actual people who do this work in law enforcement, in homicide—if this were a real thing, what would be the response, and how do you guys interact as partners? That was really key, so that we can deliver just a regular conversation like me and you right now, that would seem more authentic.
NNO: You make law enforcement look cool. You really do. We know that Native communities have a really complicated relationship with law enforcement. We hear about individual departments and officers having apathy.
We know there are all these jurisdictional gaps that result in the MMIW crisis. Does that inform how you approach playing law enforcement?
KR: Oh yeah, that’s the first thing on my mind, especially when I got Night Country. And I have a personal experience with law enforcement that was the complete opposite of what I present when I play these characters. So it was actually a kind of cathartic thing for me to understand—especially personal experience and then communal experience—like, how do I approach this? Because we have law enforcement on these remote locations, especially on the reservations, where we have Indigenous police officers, very, very few, and they’re just trying to do the best they can for the community. But then we have the community that has really bad experiences with tribal police, or especially non-tribal police. So it’s very interesting.
I’ve never settled on anything like “this is how I’m going to do it.” It’s always in the back of my mind. And I always just try to keep—even with my personal experience, with the bad experience with police, because not all are like that—but at the very end of the day, what are these people meant to do? There are bad apples in every aspect of every career, of every job, everywhere. They’re just bad apples everywhere. So I always keep that in the back of my mind. What would I like a police officer to be like in a perfect world? So how can I represent that, especially being a woman, a Two Spirit woman, Cape Verdean, Indigenous—all the boxes I check in this society right now? It’s a heavy load to carry that I continue to unpack, but I hope I’m doing it justice. It’s very—it changes every day, and there’s a lot of different perspectives. But I try to keep that in the back of my mind and represent and present a law enforcement person in a way that I would love to see them in the context of whatever story. Like in Mercy, I keep that in mind—okay, how would I like this person to be if I met this law enforcement person on the street?
NNO: My very last question for you—I know we are so short on time. What was your favorite on-set meal?
KR: They always had snacks. I’m a crafty brat. If you can’t find me, I’m picking snacks. I’m always picking snacks—the peanuts, the protein bars, everything. You find me at craft services. Poor wardrobe always finds wrappers in my clothes because I’m always snacking. So that is my favorite meal—craft services.
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