The Native American fighter and Film Independent Spirit Award nominee scores a knockout while playing a former boxer searching for her missing sister in an edgy thriller.
When it comes to convincingly handling the rough stuff in an action-thriller, Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis have nothing on Kali Reis, the star of Catch the Fair One, an edgy suspense drama now available for rental or purchase on various streaming platforms.
Writer-director Josef Kubota Wladyka’s indie production — winner of the Audience Award at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, where Reis received a special jury accolade for her breakout performance — has Reis perfectly cast as Kaylee “K.O.” Uppashaw, an Indigenous former boxer who boldly kicks ass like it has never been kicked before when she discovers that her missing sister is possibly alive and circulating in a trafficking network.
And get this: Pretty much like Jackie Chan, Reis does all of her own stunts. Because she’s got all the right moves.
Reis, who has Cherokee, Nipmuc and Seaconke Wampanoag ancestry, was ready to rumble long before the cameras started rolling. She’s the first Indigenous fighter to win the International Boxing Association middleweight crown, and she fought in the first female boxing match ever televised on HBO. And she currently is the WBA Super Lightweight Champion.
But this weekend, the 35-year-old Rhode Island native will be competing in a different arena: She’s been nominated in the Best Female Lead category of the 2022 Independent Spirit Awards, which will air live at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT Sunday exclusively on IFC and AMC+.
“My given name ‘Mequinonoag’ means ‘Many Feathers, Many Talents’ in our Algonquian dialect,” Reis says. “This name was given to me by my mother, Patricia ‘Gentle Rain’ Booker, member and Medicine Woman of The Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe. The strength and wisdom of our Indigenous women leaders and ancestors runs deep within my warrior veins, alongside the long bloodline of resilience in our women.
“As a boxer, I put my heart and spirit into using the ‘medicine’ given to me by the Creator through the art of battle in that squared circle. Fighting has turned into a ceremony, my ‘prayer’ representing all nations, doing what we Indigenous people have done for centuries — fight and survive. I walk with one Pucker Toe Moccasin and one boxing boot every step of the way.”
We recently spoke with Kali Reis about her move from the squared circle to the movie screen. Here are some highlights from our conversation.
Cowboys & Indians: What do you draw upon from your Indigenous heritage as a boxer and, now, an actor?
Kali Reis: I believe with the background I have of being an Indigenous woman — first and foremost, in my boxing career, I am a woman in a man’s world. And then to be extra different, to be an Indigenous fighter — there aren’t many Indigenous people that are put into such a spotlight in boxing. Or film. I think I separate myself from the rest in that aspect, but in a good way. I can use it to my advantage, not because I put on a show, but because that’s where I get my strength from. We’ve always been fighting as Indigenous people, and still we’re here, we’re warriors. And now, going into film — well, film is storytelling. And as Indigenous folk, we are natural storytellers.
I thrive on the ability and the honor of being able to represent Indigenous and Native people everywhere, because we’re so often forgotten. We need more faces like mine, especially being mixed Black Indigenous. That’s definitely a group of people that doesn’t get understood and represented in things like film or athletics. I think it separates me from the norm, which is almost a double-edged sword. But I’m willing to accept it.
C&I: Catch the Fair One is a cracking good action-thriller, but it also may serve as a teaching tool to enlighten people heretofore unaware that so many Indigenous women disappear every year. Were you actively looking to appear in a film that, like Wind River, would help draw attention to this terrible phenomenon?
Kali: No. Actually, Josef Kubota Wladyka, who is the director and writer, approached me back in 2017, when he had just been learning, just like the general population, about the missing and murdered Indigenous women epidemic. He is a screenwriter and he already established himself. He wanted to tell this story, and he stumbled upon me through the social media of a mutual friend who had a boxing gym and followed me. Because I do my best to bring awareness to things like missing and murdered Indigenous women via my boxing, he just approached me and said who he was, what he had in mind, and asked if I’d be interested in acting — and we hit it off immediately. He had the bare bones of the story he wanted to tell. After he met me, he asked me to come on board as a creative collaborative partner. We came up together with this story, building the characters, taking a lot of things out of my own story, and really honing in on what type of themes we wanted to bring to a film that would be entertainment, but about a serious issue.
C&I: Was there ever any talk of using a stunt double for you, to prevent your being injured during filming?
Kali: [Laughs] I don’t think they would have been that stupid to ask me, because I would’ve told them, “Nope.” I wanted to do it all myself. And so, from Day One, me and Josef hit it off, and we had so much in common — and he knew the physical aspect is what I’d bring to it immediately. I’ve been an athlete since I was like eight years old. So as long as I’m in this business, and if I can do what I can do, I'm going to do it. Especially the boxing part. It was exciting to get to do my own stunts, and really learn what it is to choreograph things in a film.
C&I: What was the biggest challenge for you in terms of acting? Like, what was the scene that had you thinking the night before: “Oh. They’re doing that one tomorrow. Guess I can’t call in sick, huh?”
Kali: Probably the scene with my character’s mother. That was probably the one that I knew I had to really get it there. And that one was tough. The physical stuff I got, but the emotional aspect, the dynamic between her and her mother, that was tough. That was really where I was like, “Oh man, I’ve got to do this scene tomorrow.” But at the same time, I was looking forward to it because, again, I really wanted to take the responsibility, and tell the story, and tell it the right way to the best of my ability.
C&I: Before filming began, did you go through a training regimen like you would for a boxing match?
Kali: Yeah, absolutely. I brought the same mentality that I bring my boxing. I’ve been boxing since I’m 13, 14 years old, and I'm also an OCD Virgo. So when I commit to something or somebody, I give my all. I definitely brought that approach, that discipline, here. And I want to know what I’m doing wrong so I can improve and do it better. I’m huge on critiques. Tell me if I suck, so I won’t suck.
C&I: How did you prepare?
Kali: Well, Josef pretty much threw me into the trenches. We originally started with him and his little camera. He’d come up to Rhode Island from New York and just kind of play around with different, goofy acting things. And then he actually got one of his other actor friends involved, reading through the script together and practicing, so I would get used to what it’s like to act opposite other people. I love Josef to death, he’s a dear friend of mine now. But he was very, very thorough. That’s the only way I could get used to using my tool, if you will.
And then to top it all off, right before we went into shooting, he hooked me up with an amazing acting coach by the name of Sheila Gray. We had what we called an acting boot camp for a week straight. I just went and worked with her one on one, doing improv and stuff, and fine-tuning things. She’s amazing. She explained it so I could understand what I was getting into as far as where to go with things.
C&I: And after that, you felt like you were ready to step into the ring, so to speak?
Kali: Actually, I wanted to get into acting originally. Before Josef first approached me, I just didn't know where to start. But acting and arts have always been something that’s been instilled in me. My family was very musically inclined. My grandmother was in theater. My mom had me doing theater stuff as a kid — real small stuff, but I’ve always been so expressive. Once I really understood what Sheila helped me with, I was like, “OK, now I know what I've got to do.” And I did it to the best of my ability.
C&I: One last question: Do worry that, if you pursue an acting career, other directors might be, well, afraid you might hit them if they show you any disrespect?
Kali: [Laughs] Oh, no. I’m so non-confrontational. The only time I throw punches is in the ring. I am not like that. Just don’t ring any bells around me.