Comedy queen goes back to school with a message for bullied kids

REGINA Hall is best known for the big screen comedies that have helped her to become a household name, but the seasoned actor landed in the genre almost by luck.

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REGINA Hall is best known for the big screen comedies that have helped her to become a household name, but the seasoned actor landed in the genre almost by luck.

In fact it was a tragic family event that steered her towards acting at all, having studied a masters of journalism in New York. Midway through her course, her father died of a stroke and after taking stock of what was important in life, she embarked on a career in entertainment.

Little star Regina Hall. Picture: Lisa O'Connor/AFP

But it wasn’t the route you so often see in the biographies of successful comedians — the years of pathetically paid late night stand-up gigs followed by a chance on a talk show and eventually the big break.

For Hall, luck basically decided where her destiny lay when she landed the role in what would become one of the most successful franchises of the time.

“I didn’t study comedy at all but a lot of people think I did,” she tells Insider. “I booked Scary Movie and that ended up being such a big comedy that I think people thought I was a comedian; then I just booked more comedies from there.”

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Hall, 48, has made the most of that break. She starred in four of the five Scary Movie films and went on to other comedies such as Death At A Funeral (2010), Think Like A Man (2012) and two sequels, and Girls Trip (2017) which made more than $US140 million at the box office.

But she’s also had the opportunity to flex her dramatic muscle, in her recurring role as a district attorney in one of the Law & Order franchises and in last year’s critically acclaimed YA drama The Hate U Give.

Her latest movie, Little, is another comedy in which she stars as successful yet terrifying entrepreneur Jordan Sanders, who after messing with the wrong young magician is turned into her 13-year-old self.

Hall plays unlikeble boss Jordan Sanders in Little.

It’s the reverse of the Tom Hanks hit Big, which is what inspired 14-year-old executive producer, and young Jordan in the movie, Marsai Martin, to pitch it, and forces Jordan to head back to school and experience the kind of bullying that turned her into the hardened boss everybody hates.

While Little is absolutely a comedy, Hall hopes it has a message for those who have experienced the type of abuse that young Jordan copped.

Abuse that changed her from a friendly, smart and charismatic student into a rich but lonely autocrat.

“It’s important for kids to know they’re not alone, that people have experienced some of the same things that they are experiencing,” she says of the movie.

Halls says she knew there was bullying when she was at school, but was lucky enough to avoid it by sticking with a close group of friends and being a good student.

Marsai Martin, 14, plays a young Jordan in the movie and also acts as executive producer.

She says things are much tougher for young people today with the advent of social media and the constant stream of information levelled at them — both good and bad.

“I think it’s hard to monitor because kids are bombarded with so many voices outside of just their community,” she says.

Her success means many of those young people now look to Hall as a role model. It’s something she doesn’t feel pressured by, but at the same time is important to her.

“I don’t know that I walk with the responsibility but I definitely feel the need to be responsible and I don’t take for granted what it is for someone younger to have an example of what they want to lead by,” she says.

“I’m not perfect — life will be life — but if there’s someone whose life I could impact positively, that’s always an incredible honour.”

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