Posted in: Movies | Tagged: regina hall, Scary Movie, scary movie 6

Regina Hall on Scary Movie, Comedy and Visibility

Regina Hall reflects on how the success of Scary Movie shaped the industry’s perception of what she could do.

Regina Hall has spent the past two decades building a career that moves between genres (and several sub-genres). However, many viewers first met her through the widely recognized Scary Movie franchise, where Brenda Meeks quickly became one of the most quoted characters in modern comedy. Sure, those films basically turned her into a franchise fixture for audiences who love horror and pop culture spoofs, but they were still only a fraction of what she could really do. Now, Hall is reflecting on how Scary Movie influenced the way she was viewed within the industry.

Regina Hall on Visibility Post-Scary Movie

In a recent conversation with Variety, Hall was asked whether she felt misunderstood by the industry after the first wave of Scary Movie success, and she explained, "Definitely. After Scary Movie, people saw me as someone who only does broad comedy. But then, when I didn't do broad comedy for a while, I remember people asking my agents, 'Well, does she even do comedy?' I think a lot of people haven't seen the breadth of the work. It's just about what they've seen. That happened again after Girls Trip. It was strange; suddenly, they were asking if I could do comedy, because I was playing the straight role. Which is funny, because I was the straight one in Think Like a Man, but definitely not in About Last Night. It all comes down to visibility. If the work isn't part of the mainstream conversation, people don't know it exists."

Beyond the Scary Movie films, she has slipped into romance, subtle character work, and projects that require different skills. Some parts let her go big and messy (like Little); others rely on her to play the straight character who keeps the comedy balanced (like Girls Trip). Still, outside of comedy, her range is especially clear in stories like the 2022 horror film Master, where Hall's spectacular performance anchors a story built on institutional gaslighting and a slow, creeping sense of dread.

Now, with her return in Scary Movie 6 on the horizon, Brenda is definitely poised to pull a new wave of viewers back in. For some, that will mean discovering how many different shades of comedy Hall has already played. For others, it will be the first step toward seeing the full range of an actor who has been doing far more than one kind of funny all along.

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