Emmys spotlight: Kali Reis delivers knockout performance in ‘True Detective: Night Country’
Kali Reis conquered the world as a boxer with two world champion titles to her name. Now, she’s hung up the gloves for the acting masks. After just two small film roles, she is at the center of the action in “True Detective: Night Country.” In this fourth season of the HBO crime series, Reis stars alongside Jodie Foster as cops investigating the disappearance of eight men in the spooky fictional town of Ennis, Alaska. Foster is reliably excellent so the pleasant surprise here is that she is matched step for step by Reis. The rookie leaves a serious impression with this turn as critics have noted.
Kelly Lawler (USA Today) opined: “Like Harrelson and McConaughey before them, Foster and Reis are an exquisitely matched pair. Danvers is grizzled, cynical and practiced; Reis is reserved and angry… Reis is unknown, and the depths of her talent and her character are tantalizing to uncover as the season unfolds.”
Ross McIndoe (Slant Magazine) observed: “Navarro is a woman and a person of color working in a system that seldom protects either, and you can feel the latent fury and exhaustion in each of her movements. It’s a mesmerizing performance, as Reis simultaneously conveys the character’s protective outer shell and the vulnerabilities beneath it at all times.”
Vicky Jessop (London Evening Standard) stated: “It’s no surprise that Foster is great and so the real revelation is her partner on the force, Evangeline Navarro. Played by former boxer Kali Reis in only her third screen credit, Navarro is equally damaged, and Reis plays her to perfection. For one, she’s trying desperately to solve the cold case of murdered Indigenous woman Annie K. For another, she’s being haunted by the ghost of her dead mother.”
Judy Herman (Time Magazine) explained: “Reis, a boxer who is relatively new to acting, not only holds her own with Foster, but also brings an unaffected quality to a character who refuses to keep her thoroughly justified anger in check.”
This is only Reis’ third credit as an actress so she is an absolute newcomer with no Emmy nominations to her name. But that shouldn’t hurt her. The category she’ll be competing in, Best TV Movie/Limited Series Supporting Actress, often nominates first-timers, such as Camila Morrone (“Daisy Jones and the Six”), Maria Bello (“Beef”), Annaleigh Ashford (“Welcome to Chippendales”), Natasha Rothwell (“The White Lotus”), and Kaitlyn Dever (“Dopesick”).
Plus, we expect “True Detective” to be a big Emmy contender with predicted bids for Foster, Best Limited Series, and plenty of below-the-line nominations. Reis could be swept along for the ride in the same way many nominees in this category have done so before, such as Bello (“Beef”), Dever (“Dopesick”), Ashford (“Welcome to Chippendales”), and “The White Lotus” quadruple Rothwell, Connie Britton, Alexandria Daddario, and Sydney Sweeney.
This is a good genre for Reis to earn a first bid in, too. Crime is very much the order of the day at the moment and plenty of thesps have garnered bids for featuring in crime shows, fact or fictional. Recent examples include Niecy Nash-Betts “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” Julianne Nicholson and Jean Smart (“Mare of Easttown”), Toni Collette (“Unbelievable”), Patricia Arquette (“The Act”), and Judith Light and Penélope Cruz (“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace”).
Her biggest plus is her performance. The fact that Reis who, I’ll stress again only has two acting credits before “True Detective,” manages to go toe-to-toe with the mighty talent of Foster is truly impressive. Emmy voters won’t be able to overlook that.
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