Regina Hall Keeps On Ticking

They say cats have nine lives. But they're apparently not the only ones. The lovable character Brenda Meeks, played by Regina Hall, keeps coming back for more in the successful and irreverent "Scary Movie" films.

In the first "Scary Movie," it was a movie audience that did in loudmouth Brenda before the serial killer could. But in "Scary Movie 2," she did survive, managing to outrun the evil. In "Scary Movie 3," Brenda took on the girl from "The Ring" but lost. (Even her corpse had a hard time at the wake.)

During an interview on The Early Show Friday, co-anchor Julie Chen asked Hall how she feels about playing Brenda. Does she ever hear from family and friends about the movies' offbeat humor?

"You know what? It's fun because she's so far from, like, who I am in real life," explains Hall. "And in this one, she's, like, completely … I guess irreverent would be the word again, and man crazy, and sex starved, and I like it."

Chen notes that the tag line in "Scary Movie" was: "No mercy. No shame. No sequels." And, yet, here we are at "Scary Movie 4."

"I know," Hall replies. "Well, we haven't had a sequel. These are new parts. No, I'm just kidding. No, they lied. But you know, also, I don't even know if it was an intentional lie. We didn't know it was a franchise. That completely started because of the audience of fans. The fact that they received it so well, made us do it again and again … and again."

This installment is different from the other, Chen observes, in that it not only spoofs scary movies but everything from "Brokeback Mountain" to the president of the United States, to the Tom Cruise-Oprah Winfrey episode.

"Yeah," confirms Hall, "if it's popular, we get it. You know, it's like now, it's culture movies. If it's recognizable enough to a vast audience, then … it's spoofable."

How fun is it for Hall to play a character like Brenda?

"She's in her own world," replies Hall, "and I just like the fact that she's uninhibited. She's fun."

But, she adds, "The braids are hard" because they're heavy and it takes several hours to get them attached. Because of shooting requirements, Hall often has to get fresh braids so that don't look frayed.

Hall says she has learned a lot from Anna Faris, who plays best friend Cindy Campbell, and director David Zucker. "There's definitely a lot of thought that goes into it. It's not just (deciding to) go and act crazy and be crazy."

Hall holds a master's degree in journalism from New York University. While she never exactly aspired to be an on-air newswoman, she thought she might have been a producer, putting together long story packages.

"I thought I'd be doing '60 Minutes,' " she tells Chen, who invited her to "throw" to the next segment on The Early Show, and Hall was happy to oblige, looking into the camera and saying: "Now here's Harry."

Chen's review? "Oh, Regina, that was good. That was really good."