I’m a former boxing world champion, now I’m making my own way as an actor starring alongside Hollywood legend
KALI REIS is the boxing world champion now making her way as an actor starring alongside a Hollywood legend.
The American has a 19–7–1 in the ring and held titles in the middleweight and light-welterweight divisions.
But in 2021 – the same year she had her last bout – Reis starred in a movie thriller called Catch the Fair One.
The film follows the story of a Native American ex-boxer and addict who infiltrates a sex-trafficking ring in search of her missing sister.
Reis then followed up that role by starring alongside Oscar winner Jodie Foster in the latest series of hit HBO show True Detective.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said: “Acting is meant to be people like Jodie Foster.
“I’m this half-breed from Rhode Island. I had a lot of doubts about walking into a very vulnerable, judgy career.”
Reis was first spotted by film director Josef Kubota Wladyka, who noticed the boxer using her platform to raise awareness about missing and murdered indigenous women.
She said: “He caught me at a weird time. My younger brother had just passed away from brain cancer.
“[Wladyka] wanted to implement what I’d been through in the script. I didn’t mind because it helped me connect to the character.
“I didn’t want to romanticise the sexualisation of these victims. I like raw, authentic, ugly truth.
“It’s a dark story, so it was natural to me, but I’d never acted before and didn’t know where to start.”
Reis began boxing at 14 after turning to selling drugs and battling alcoholism before even her teenage years.
She revealed: “It found me at the perfect time.
“I had to be present, so it put the voices in my head on chill mode, and I liked to fight.
“I attest it to the tribe I’m from. We’re strong people, matriarchal people.”
Reis won her first world title in 2016 and became a two-division champ four years later.
But now she is focusing on acting and won the praise of her legendary co-star.
Foster said: “The second I saw Kali, I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. That’s just a gift that you’re either born with or not.”
True Detective series four was released on January 14 and concluded on February 18. A fifth season has since been confirmed.