After appearing as a supporting character in a few productions, Reginae Carter has finally landed her first leading role in a new film, and it’s already getting plenty of praise.
On Thursday night, November 3, the daughter of Lil Wayne attended a private screening of the Maverick Entertainment and Freeli Films production Boxed In at the Aurora Cineplex near Atlanta. Carter pulled up to the premiere with the rest of her cast members Clifton Powell, Lil’ Zane, Sean Freeman, Marquita McSwain and more. Her mother Toya Johnson was also in the building to see the film, which premiered exclusively on Peacock on November 1.
I was actually very nervous,” Carter told iHeartRadio on the red carpet. “but my cast, the crew, everybody was so welcoming. Everybody just helped me and guided me through so it was a great process.”
“I actually box like working out but it’s so different from action boxing than regular, just working out boxing,” Carter added. “As you’ll see in the movie, I had like three or four fights. All of those fights was different techniques that I had to learn so it was like ‘ooo wee’… a lot but I got it done.”
Reginae Carter stars in the as “Ria,” an aspiring boxer who lost her father as a child. When she gets caught up in street fighting, Ria’s mother, who doesn’t approve of her boxing dreams, forces her to move out to the country with her grandfather portrayed by Powell. Although he runs a strict household, her grandpa supports her dream and tries to inspire her. In between working on the farm with her Pa, Ria meets Tuga, played by Freeman, who helps her get into shape for the biggest match of her career.
“Lil Wayne is one of my partners and Reginae’s mom and I know each other and we did a play together years ago,” Powell said. “To me she’s like family. So it was like working with your niece or cousin. It felt like family. We had such warm scenes and she was always right in the moment of each scene. So it wasn’t a lot of the OG coaching her or anything. She came prepared.”
Boxed In began filming last October. During that time, Carter had to undergo strict training to strengthen the boxing skills she had already possessed. While learning her lines was easy for her, the budding actress says the training and all the choreographed fights were the most difficult aspects of making the film.
Prior to Boxed In, Carter appeared in TV films like Pride & Prejudice: Atlanta (2019) and newer series like Social Society, Terror Lake Drive and I Got A Story To Tell. Her parents are some of her biggest supporters outside of her massive followers on social media. Wayne boasted about his daughter’s film on Instagram by posting the trailer, but he couldn’t attend the premiere. The actress shared the reason why he couldn’t make it.
“He had a watch party last night with his friends because he couldn’t make it because he’s working on his album,” Carter explained. “He texted me this morning and he was like ‘Oh your name is Ria now! You killed it! It’s only the beginning.’”
Boxed In is now streaming exclusively on Peacock in November, and will be live on TUBI, Pluto, Amazon, Roku and many more platforms on December 1. See her recap of the event below.
