Many of us know Regina Hall as Brenda from the hilarious Scary Movie franchise, but if her newest character ran our workplaces, we’d be using that title in a brand new context. In Little, the comedy actress plays a rich tech entrepreneur who leaves her staff shaking in their seats with her crazy demands and deep-cutting insults – so much so that she must relive her middle school days to change her ways.
Regina Hall had such a blast playing the nightmarish bad boss to Issa Rae’s April, it actually surprised her how much so. Here’s what she said in my recent interview with her:
She’s so rotten. It was really a fun character to play. I have to say, I enjoyed being a little monster. No one would behave that insane in real life so I thought I would have a great time, I didn’t think it would come so instinctively, but yeah it was fun to do.
The actress certainly had the chance to go over-the-top for the comedy and say some vile things to her staff in the film. This included tearing them down during a pitch meeting and even getting on the bad side of a young girl, who ends up magically transforming her into a 13-year-old, played by Black-ish’s Marsai Martin.
Regina Hall served as an executive producer on Little along with her younger counterpart, Marsai Martin, who has now made history as the youngest in Hollywood history to earn the prestigious behind-the-scenes role. Martin pitched the film inspired by the Tom Hanks-led Big to Will Packer Productions when she was just 10 years old and had a hand in picking Regina Hall and Issa Rae as her costars.
While Regina Hall only stars in the beginning and end of the film, she gets some scene-stealing moments as a bad boss similar to Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada. The actress also apparently made sure to make it onto set for Luke James’ steamy dancing scene (according to director/writer Tina Gordon, she flew in just for it!)
Little opened last weekend with a handful of other newcomers such as Hellboy, After and Missing Link, and bested all of them at the box office with a $15 million weekend. Little was just behind Shazam!, which took home the No. 1 spot at $25 million during its second weekend. It’s a modest entrance for the studio that made the Ride Along films, Think Like a Man and Girls Trip, but altogether it wasn’t a solid run for movie theaters as a whole.
As more films hit theaters this weekend such as Breakthrough, Penguins and The Curse of La Llorona, we’ll have to see how Little (or Big) of an impression the ensemble comedy makes on audiences. Either way, it looks like Regina Hall and the cast had tons of fun making it, especially when it came to exploring her bad boss side.
