Regina Hall on ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ and Finding Humanity in Each of Her Characters

Whether delivering laughs on the Oscars stage, starring in now-iconic films like Scary Movie or Girls Trip, or good-naturedly making her way through a tedious press day, Regina Hall is a natural charmer, radiating charisma and the sense of humor that has made her a comedy icon.

These may seem like rudimentary facts about the beloved star, but they also serve as the basis for why her turn in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers is so deliciously impressive. Gone is the polished star with a 20+ year acting career, replaced by Carmel Schneider, a deeply self-conscious woman who has come to the Nicole Kidman-led retreat with a broken heart. Is Carmel on a quest for wellness to undo the damage done by a wandering husband, or is there something more sinister at play? Hall keeps her character’s secrets closely guarded and tears into David E. Kelley’s material with deft skill, delivering a performance that is a joy to watch unfold while also simmering with depth and drama.

Awards Daily:  Regina, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. This current phase of your career is a joy to watch because each project feels so distinct. I got to see you in Master at South by Southwest, which was incredible, and of course, Nine Perfect Strangers, which is an entirely new type of role for you. What is it like for you to be in this moment? It’s not a new phase, but perhaps this phase of growth and discovery for you and people who’ve known your work for a long time?

Regina Hall: Thank you for having me; I’m excited to talk to you. I mean, it’s great to be still working, you know, it’s great to have a career, let alone a long one, and be able to do new stuff with new material. I feel like storytelling has expanded so much in the past ten years with streaming and different kinds of writers and storytellers like Mariama [Diallo], who wrote Master. Getting to play Carmel was so great and such a surprise. So all those things are exciting and it keeps me on my toes, but it keeps me also really invested and excited about what I get to do.

AD: You’ve talked about your Oscars hosting experience quite a bit, but I did want to tell you that one of the things that I loved about the aftermath was going on Twitter and having people say, ‘Regina Hall is such a treasure’ or ‘We love her.’ And seeing you in this moment where your work is being appreciated. Are you feeling the excitement and the energy around your career and everything you have going on right now?

RH: [Laughs]. You know, I don’t even know how to log on to my Twitter, but hearing that now is great. I will say this: I felt supported that night, and I think we all did. We felt embraced, and we felt it in and outside of that room. It’s tremendous; it’s like, if there’s a plant, that’s the water in the soil that feeds us, so that part is great. It’s great when I get to be out and about and see people who are like, ‘Oh, I saw you in Scary Movie.’ People are like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a long time ago,’ but it’s great to have audiences from then. I feel blessed that I can have an audience my age, and then [one] your age, you know, that’s tremendous because you’re young, and it’s great to have another generation say: ‘You’re my mom’s age, but I love what you do.’

AD: Your role in Nine Perfect Strangers all boils down to how you calibrated your performance, because it starts as a slow burn and it takes us some time to get to know Carmel. Then we have this big twist where everything we thought we knew about your character turns on its head and puts things into a new perspective. How do you go about planting those seeds? How do you even approach building a character like that?

RH: Well, once I read the series completely—I only had the first two or three episodes at first, so by the time I, as a reader, got to episode eight, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I have to do this completely different.’ Carmel’s biggest thing is that she has twists and turns, but I felt deep compassion for her. Do you know what I mean? She didn’t feel amazing about herself for whatever reason, one would say her husband left her—to walk with that, she does take such a pretty dark turn. That happens, and it’s like, “How do you make a villain not a villain?” You know, she’s a catalyst, and of course, we all know what she did to Masha. She attacked someone at the spa and stabbed her husband with a fork, but what’s the humanity behind this?

How do you get someone to stay on the journey, to say, ‘There’s something up with Carmel,’ but be invested and care about her because of the heartbreak in her story? The truth is she’s broken, there’s a piece of her that’s broken, but you also realize these things don’t come out of anywhere, you know?

I felt like you had to believe Carmel was capable, but I also wanted people to have compassion for her because she was a deeply wounded person. Sometimes we don’t see the humanity behind the action, and I wanted people to want to be on the journey with Carmel. To root for her as well and not vilify her. Even though you kept finding out more and more about Carmel, that was violent; how do you create a space of compassion and have an audience be like, ‘Well, where’d that come from? She seems so nice.’ You have to have all the components, the beauty of Carmel and all the darkness and all the rage, and the kindness and sweetness. It was just figuring out a way to make Carmel a portrait where all those things are true.

AD: When you’re mapping out your performance, did you find that you started as if you didn’t know all these things about her? Or did you go in with intention, knowing where she ends up, and wanting to plant seeds for the audience?

RH: I had read all of the episodes before we started shooting. So yes, I did feel like it would be important to know that anything was possible with Carmel so that it wouldn’t come out of the left field. You want it to track the revelation of her and Masha, but you also don’t want to give that away. It’s that idea of going back and forth, like, ‘Did Carmel do it?’ Then after the meeting, you’re like, ‘No, it definitely wasn’t Carmel because she told the truth.’ So it’s not where you want people not to believe it.

 AD: The magic of Nine Perfect Strangers lies in the ensemble and the push and pull of your scenes together. You worked closely with Nicole Kidman, who was famously in character for most of the show. How did these interactions inform your performance?

RH: Being able to work with Nicole in the beginning was so intimidating because I’m such a fan of her work. It was interesting because Nicole is great, and when you’re working with her live and in person, you see this array of choices that she makes. Still, you don’t know what she will give each take, which affects how you respond. Carmel is Carmel in terms of my character choices, but not in things that she did. They were very connected to my co-stars because you’re responding to what they give you, and Carmel is obsessed with Masha, so it’s very much a love-hate, obsessive relationship. Every time she gave me something, it was just something else to act off and respond to. All of the cast, we all hopefully got opportunities from that, but because I had a lot with Nicole, it was wonderful. It was a gift because that allowed so many different choices to happen within who Carmel was, the anticipation of how I might have read it, and how Masha responded with great love. All those affected my performance.

AD: You’ve said that one of the things that was so exciting for you about Carmel was that she was so different from who you are as a person; she walked and talked differently than you did. How did you adapt your physicality to allow space for Carmel? 

RH: Interestingly, I cannot necessarily remember the exact steps. It’s a weird thing. It’s like, once you’re doing it, and you’re in costume, and you’ve daydreamed about it, your character kind of comes through you. I remember being ready and noticing how she was standing, and just her behavior was so different than mine, and you’re rehearsing, talking, and it comes out, and her voice is higher because you kind of hear it in your head. Before we started, I remember thinking, ‘What comes through about the character of Carmel Schneider is a little different in the book, but what do I have that I could bring in terms of being self-conscious?’ While I was in quarantine, my immune system attacked itself, I took a vitamin that my body was allergic to, and I had a hypersensitivity attack. I scratched it and had a fever and an incredible rash all over my body. They gave me this steroid, and then they were like, ‘it’s going into summer in Australia, and they’re like, ‘Oh, and you can’t be out in the sun. So, I had to wear sweaters, and I remember being like, ‘Carmel, calm down.’ [Laughs]. That really shaped her wardrobe and the sleeves; it was just another thing to play with.

So I don’t know; I feel like I talk to my characters and try to see them come alive. I had a lot of conversations with Carmel, and when that happened, I was like, ‘Okay, Carmel, we’re going to take a break.’ That also became a part of who she was, not necessarily what an audience saw but something else that was another part of what she was insecure about. So I think [the characters] kind of live through you. I look back at things, and at that point, I was like, ‘Oh, why?’ But I look back now, and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, that was another piece that informed who she was.’ 

 AD: Are you still having conversations with Carmel? Have you been able to let her go, or is she still living with you a little bit?

RH: [Laughs]. No, I let Carmel go. We had a sweet, gifted departure, where I thanked her immensely for another insight into life’s journey. I also thanked her for the service she may have played for any person that’s felt betrayed. Every character is different, but I certainly research each one. I’m always informed by hair. I don’t know why but if I can see the hair, then everything else comes. I definitely take them all very seriously, like comedies and dramas; I always like to think of them as living things. You know, they all have their souls, and I may be the body they’re moving and talking through, but they all have their little piece of me. A portion of Regina lives in every character, including Carmel. I think that’s why it’s always so important for me to be like, ‘Where’s the humanity in this character?’ Even for Brenda, I mean, Brenda’s the worst friend in the world to Cindy; why are they even friends? I want to make people want to be friends with Brenda, even though she’s going to leave you out in the cold every time. Still, what can I do to make a character enjoyable for an audience to experience, even the side that we don’t like? Where is she relatable to what it is to be a human, to people that we know, and to aspects of ourselves that we could identify with even if we’ve never done it. They’re never just anything, and they’re all special.

Nine Perfect Strangers is available to stream via Hulu.