When Paul Thomas Anderson offered Regina Hall a role in “One Battle After Another,” she did not realize the movie would be full of dark humor. It was really only when they started shooting that comedy emerged from the story of revolutionaries fighting a fascist government enforced by Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Hall plays Deandra, a member of the militant group the French 75 who rescues Willa (Chase Infiniti), the child of rebels Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) and Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), from Lockjaw. Stoic and loyal, she wears the weight of the movement on her face.
What she doesn’t do is deliver the laughs.
That’s right, the versatile actress who broke out 25 years ago in the Wayans Brothers’ spoof “Scary Movie” and cohosted the Oscars with Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes in 2022 is the straight woman.
“(Paul) didn’t say that there would be a lot of comedy. He didn’t go into details. He gave me broad strokes of the story and Deandra,” Hall said, before adding with a laugh, “I would have assumed that I would have been funny, but no. Actually, I’m the one person that was not funny, ever.”
The counterintuitiveness of casting the star of “Girls Trip” and dozens of other comedies as a quiet force amid constant chaos is just one of the magic tricks that make “One Battle After Another” such a singular piece of filmmaking. A few hours before the December premiere of her other big 2025 release, “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” (in which she voices a ghost fish), Hall talked about working with Anderson and uncovering her character, who, it turns out, he likened to a certain “Star Wars” hero. (Spoilers ahead.)
You are physically very still as Deandra, conveying so much without speaking. How did you get into her headspace? Did Paul give you any cinema references to other characters?
You know, he didn’t do that. We talked a lot about the character and where she stood in the landscape of the story, knowing that she had seen the beginning of the French 75, had that ideal belief and then watched that slowly dissipate or turn into something else. He did say, “She’s my Obi-Wan Kenobi.” That helped me understand her. You know, it’s like, “She’s my bass player.” A bass player can be great, but you’re always going to remember the drummer. So it was really understanding the function of Deandra in the story, which is so much about Willa. Willa is the baby of the French 75. There is something to be said for knowing that baby, being there when the baby was born.
Deandra’s fate is left open-ended, which has led to vigorous theorizing online. People have strong opinions about whether she ratted out Bob. I have my interpretation, but do you know what happened to her?
She did not rat out Bob — that I know. Paul seems to think she went to jail. I was like, “I think (Lockjaw’s troops) shot her. You don’t think they killed her just for the history (of her actions)?” Either way, it’s a tragic end. But she didn’t rat. For her, it’s not even about ratting. She just felt like she failed — they found her (and Willa). So I think her concern is more like, “Is Willa okay?”
Is that what’s going on in her head in your last scene, when Deandra is handcuffed and put into a police car? The look of devastation on your face…
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yes, that was what was going through her mind.
Some people have interpreted it in other ways.
What do they think?
That it’s a look of guilt for ratting. I had the same reading as you did — maybe it’s because I’m dark — that she would be executed.
Paul said that was dark too. (Laughs) There was a scene with Sean that was cut where he comes in and interrogates (Deandra) and says something pretty dark. So I was like, “Oh, she’s definitely dying.” But no, she didn’t rat. She did not rat anyone out. I think when she looks and knows that Perfidia is a rat, she understands it, but she wouldn’t. There is some honor (in her) that I don’t think she would rat.
You didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming an actor. You have a master’s in journalism from NYU, which I find so interesting, being a journalist myself, because I cannot even imagine making the leap from writing behind my computer to acting on screen. What made you feel that you were more suited to performing?
You know, I never necessarily understood how to do it purely as a profession. I thought, Oh, maybe I’ll direct. But my father passed away suddenly when I was in journalism school, grad school. He had a stroke. I had a friend who said, “You can make extra money doing acting or commercials.” So I just think after (grad school), when I did it for extra money, it was very — what can I say? — distracting from what was going on. The loss of my father was very sobering, very sad, and so I thought, Well, I enjoy (acting). I’ll pursue this. Let me see, you know. And then I was very lucky that it happened for me.
Your first acting job was a McDonald’s commercial. If you hadn’t taken that turn, what would you be doing now? Would you be a journalist? Would you be writing?
I don’t know. Well, even when I wanted to do journalism, I was looking more at producing, like, “60 Minutes” — long-form packages. I don’t know. Maybe, right? One thing can change your whole trajectory.
If someone had told you back then that you’d be in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie that was at the center of the awards conversation, what would you have thought?
I would have been like, “Hell, yeah!” (Laughs) I probably would have been so surprised. I would have been psyched. I would have been like, “Wait, when is it? How long do I have to wait?” (Laughs) But it’s better that I didn’t know, because after a while, I would have been like, “It hasn’t happened yet.” I’d blame it on a bad psychic: “She’s a terrible psychic!”
And here you are. You just shot “Scary Movie 6.”
I know! If you would have told me I was going to go from PTA to “Scary Movie 6,” I would have said, “This is the worst psychic ever. She sucks. She’s just making stuff up now.”
You said you thought about directing before. Would you ever want to try it now?
I don’t know. They’d be like, “Regina forgot all the close-ups. We got a whole movie shot in wide.” (Laughs) I feel like my level of detail is not… I’d have to have the greatest DP on earth. But I mean, I’m enjoying producing and I certainly want to do a lot more of that. Supporting a director is incredible, and being able to facilitate what they need to create that vision, fighting for what they need, and then, of course, winning something so you can walk on stage.
Of course. That’s the important part, let’s be honest.
That’s it, that’s all that really matters. That’s all that counts. (Laughs)
Would you host the Oscars again?
I had so much fun, so who knows? I want to go backstage again, because I think my picture’s back there. When you walk through, you see all the pictures of the hosts. And I was like, “Oh! Our pictures are gonna be back there!” So now I’m going to have to sneak in and go look. If my picture’s not up there, I’m gonna put it up. I’m gonna bring a picture. (Laughs)
A version of this story first ran in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
