The Verge: Kali Hawk

You might not look at Kali Hawk's performance as the childish Trudy in Couples Retreat and think, "Michelle Obama," but according to the up-and-comer, that's exactly what the minds behind Saturday Night Live saw in her when they offered her a test deal. She turned down that opportunity but has picked up several since; in addition to playing Faizon Love's girlfriend in this weekend's number-one movie, she also landed a small role in the upcoming, Judd Apatow-produced movie Get Him to the Greek.

A free-spirited improviser on screen, Hawk is just as energetic and candid in real life, and when she called me from the backseat of a New York taxicab, she was willing to dish on just about anything, be it SNL, the actresses she beat for her Couples role, or the time she hurled insult after insult at Mariah Carey.

You've really built a career out of improv, whether it's these last two movies you booked or "Lovers & Haters," the Mariah Carey short film you starred in that Spike Lee directed. Is there a throughline between all those projects?

I guess it really sort of started with the Spike Lee thing. That character had a line or two and once I got cast, I did the table read and Spike started taking lines from other people and giving them to my character. So that part was a small part that got made bigger, and then I got Couples Retreat down the line, and you know how you see on the poster, how I'm on it and my name is big? For most people, that billing was in their contract. My character started out so small and I had such a small agent at the time that I didn't really have any negotiating power. After I got the movie and they saw what I could do, Vince [Vaughn] would actually write more scenes for me to do while we were shooting it, so getting on the poster and getting that star billing, that came later and that came from Vince, one of the producers on it.

Get Him to the Greek, that was a one-line part where, even though I'd just done Couples Retreat, I wanted to do this movie because it's Judd Apatow and I want to work with those guys. I'd be a craft services person to get close to them, like, Judd knows talent and if he likes me, then maybe there's something that he could do. And then I got that part and my one-line character got expanded to where they would just put me into stuff. It's partly because of that movie that I moved to UTA; my agent started taking notice after I got Couples, but Judd is at UTA, and once a guy like that and everyone else associated with that movie started saying good things about me, that definitely helped the agency really like me.

So it's weird! You go in for these small things, but they can be made bigger if you're open to just giving them all you have. I feel like people respect that ultimately, and they do reward you for it.

What kind of new things did you bring to Trudy in Couples Retreat that may not have been on the page?

Well, I know that when I read it, it was kind of written in this standard urban girl way. You'd read it and you'd get a sense of how they would want it done, but I imagine the breakdown for it was that she's urban, sexy, sassy...I love when they put "urban" in there. They're getting so specific in a very generic way.

It's code.

Right, it's code! Maybe the key comes in cracking the code, because I bet you they saw a thousand people [for the role]. I went in for about six weeks and I went up against some heavy people: They had seen Keyshia Cole, they were interested in some Destiny's Children at one point, Meagan Good threw herself in...they saw a million people. When I got the movie, one of my friends' ex-boyfriends was working at William Morris and I guess he was on the phone when somebody told their agent who they gave the part to. Suddenly, it came through this agency, "Who the fuck is Kali Hawk?" [Laughs] They had all these clients who they thought would get it over me, and I thought they would get it too, which is why I just went for it [in the audition].

How do you think you played it differently than they did?

I'm guessing that they saw all these people who looked at the description, "urban," and they got all this neck-snapping and eye-rolling and attitude, but what they didn't get was a character. And because I've gone through the Groundlings and because I've studied that, that's what I was coming in there with. The other times going in, it was mostly improv; when I finally got to read with Faizon, he said, "Yeah, I don't really stick to the lines," and I said, "Great!" and we threw down our scripts and played out the scene. If you're not trained in improv, you wouldn't be able to get through an experience like that, it'd be too nerve-wracking. But for me, I feel most relaxed like that. It's like you're trusting your innate ability to do what you do.

Hold on one second. I'm trying to pay for this cab, and it's not reading my card. One second. [Pause] I'm trying to pay for this with my debit card, which is a new thing for me with cabs. For some reason in this one, my card is not working and...it's like, technology, what the fuck?

[To cab driver] I have to go upstairs and get cash. I have the money, I really do. I'm wearing thousand-dollar boots. [Laughs] I will go upstairs and get the money and come right down. I promise you I will not leave you sitting here and not come back down. I will. You can't miss me, I'm ten feet tall. [To me] Anyway! What were we saying?

How did you like doing Groundlings?

I did it for about a year. I did it and I thought I would do it and get to be on Saturday Night Live [laughs] and then I'd get to be in movies. And it sort of worked out the opposite for me: I got Couples Retreat and then I got Get Him to the Greek and then Saturday Night Live called and they offered me a test deal. Everyone was really excited, they were like, "Look, they don't offer people test deals without having seen a tape of their characters or without having you go on at a comedy club. They don't just do that. You should be excited!"

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