Regina Hall gives a tour de force performance in the new satirical comedy Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul, now in theaters and streaming on Peacock. Regina stars as Trinitie Childs, the proud first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch. When a scandal temporarily causes Trinitie and husband Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs to close their church, they have to work together to rebuild and make a comeback. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Regina about exploring the complicated world of Trinitie Childs in the wake of her husband’s misdeeds.
“The one thing I love about her is that she possesses a strength, and I think she’s aware of how pivotal she is to Lee-Curtis being able to do what he does that she knows she’s almost a navigational system in the church,” Regina said. “I think she’s aware of how it looks. Everything. Far more than Lee Curtis is, which is why she’s nervous about the documentary and how this entire thing could be seen and how it has been seen. I think she plays many hats that we often don’t see women play publicly. Her hats are more private hats, and she’s aware of the weight of them. I do think in the movie she becomes aware of the weight of them on her finally and her husband. There’s something at the end about hearing him say ‘they’re here for me,’ right? I think she kind of hears that and it lands on her.”
The actress revealed that the show’s deep dive into the role of a first lady in a church was “interesting” to her. “I think so much when we see or hear things about churches — good and bad — whether they’re making tons of money or involved in a scandal, you don’t really think of the first lady,” Regina told HollywoodLife. “She’s kind of like this woman who’s at his side and who the pastor’s married to. I just thought it was interesting to see Trinity’s sense of how important her role is. But I also liked that she was not a complete victim. She was complicit in that. Her favorite space was on that stage. I also thought it was interesting because it was connected to her upbringing, so the scene with her mother was really revealing and telling to me in the script.”
Regina and This Is Us alum Sterling K. Brown make quite the power duo as Trinitie and Lee-Curtis. Regina had nothing but praise for her co-star.
“You need someone who is as amazing as he is to take up the space of Pastor Lee-Curtis, and he did it so beautifully,” Regina raved. “What I love is that you also see a man grappling with his… I don’t even want to call it demons because that’s really not a demon. That’s a label. That’s how he has defined it through the lens of right and wrong through the church. That’s the tragedy that he faces. He is gifted but yet he’s not allowed to be who he is, love who he loves.”
She continued, “Somehow that one portion of life we have defined as who he is, who we fall in love with, it’s one small slice of who we are. But intimate connection is so important for human beings, and so he’s not allowed to be honest with himself. But what I love is that Sterling was able for us to not just see Lee-Curtis as a bad guy who did this. He made him complex, and people were able to have a lot more compassion just because of what Sterling always brings to a performance.”
Over the course of the film, Trinitie is a force to be reckoned with as she tries to get back on top alongside her husband. Trinitie is savvy and sees the true reality that she and Lee-Curtis find themselves in. HollywoodLife asked Regina if she thinks Trinitie’s ever thought about stepping out from behind her husband’s shadow.
“I think there was a moment where she thought, can our marriage survive all of this? I think when she says to her mom, and her mom’s answer isn’t like, ‘Are you happy?’ Her mom’s answer is, ‘Are you a Christian?’ And that I think is where she decided, I am a Christian and therefore I will stay and I will stay while my husband is ‘being tempted by the devil’ in these areas in his life. But yeah, who wouldn’t? Who doesn’t long for an intimate love story to some degree? But I do think she loves Lee-Curtis. I do believe he loves her. I just believe they should be best friends,” she said.
The film’s most pivotal moment comes at the end when Trinitie finally unleashes on Lee-Curtis and everyone else in a powerful monologue. Even after everything, Trinitie knew she had too much to lose than walk away from everything she’s built. And made sure everyone knew it.
“That moment was just Trinity’s breaking point with the situation with Lee Curtis, with Anita Bonet, every force outside of the church that had been judging and kind of ridiculing the entire film,” Regina told HollywoodLife. “I think that moment was just an emotional breaking point. She had been trying throughout the entire process of making this documentary to hold it together, and she couldn’t anymore. It was incredibly honest. I think the intention of that scene was a moment of truth for herself and for everyone else and for the audience. She’s very clear and honest that I helped build this church, I helped build this man, and they are mine.”