The following essay is by Kali Reis, as told to Kerensa Cadenas. An actor and professional boxer, Reis plays Evangeline Navarro on Season 4 of HBO anthology series “True Detective.” This article has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.
I got into acting through a serendipitous turn of events; and it was something I could never have dreamed of.
I got really interested in boxing around age 12 or 13. I had always been really sporty as a kid; I played basketball and wanted to do everything that my big brothers did.
My mother and my grandmother also used to have me perform in these little church plays; I was always involved in some production of something. One Christmas, I got this microphone—I had to be, like, 3 or 4 years old—and I lined up all my stuffed animals and wrote a song.
RELATED: How to Audition for HBO
Acting came along at a time when I realized that sports—especially combat sports—had no longevity. I’ve always had a plan A through B through Z. In the sport of boxing, there are no guarantees with fights. You depend on your body as your tool, so there’s always a risk of injury. I’ve seen a lot of these fighters; there is no plan B when they retire.
When Josef Kubota Wladyka, the director of my first movie, “Catch the Fair One,” reached out to me via Instagram, I was at a point in my life when I was going through some transitions. We had just lost one of my brothers to brain cancer. Boxing had always been something special to me and my brother, but after his death, it was one of those things I couldn’t do. I was looking for something else.
Josef had this script about the Highway of Tears in Canada, where many Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or were murdered. Early on, he asked me to be a creative collaborator.
Working on this film, I realized how similar acting was to boxing. Josef used to explain that having an athletic brain helped me take direction really well because I was used to having coaches. I learned that you can’t take anything personally and that it’s not about you. The creative team wants you to portray this other person.
When “True Detective: Night Country” came across my table, the casting directors were looking for somebody to play Evangeline Navarro, a character who was part of the Indigenous community. As a fan of “True Detective,” I was determined to do the best I could with my self-tape—which is torture. When I found out they cast Jodie Foster, I was like, “Oh, shit!”
Even then, I just put in the work—like training—and said, “OK, universe, what do you got for me next?”
It was a really awesome position to be in, where you have showrunner Issa López, a woman who wrote this amazing story. Then to meet Jodie and work with her—it wasn’t like a “you’re the student and I’m the teacher” thing. It was, again, very collaborative.
Then there was the fact that I had an opportunity, as an Indigenous woman, to represent an Indigenous community that we don’t often get to see represented; that was also part of the story. I was like, I’m right where I need to be in this place, and I’m capable of it.
I’m taking things as they come, but I’m starting to understand myself, my tools, where I want to go, and how far I could go. It’s an interesting starting point. My brother jokes, “You done skipped the line.” I did a little bit, but it’s such a blessing. I’m so honored to be able to have this opportunity.
This story originally appeared in the June 13 issue of Backstage Magazine.