Writer/director Tamika Miller’s new film, Undercard, boasts an unlikely dramatic lead in the form of the gifted comedian, Wanda Sykes. Miller sought Sykes out to play the role of Cheryl, a former women’s boxing champion, training male fighters, while also dealing with recovery from addiction, homelessness, being the surrogate parent to a young girl, and trying to reconcile with her son, Keith (a terrific Bentley Green), a boxing prospect himself. While Undercard takes place in the world of boxing, the sport serves as the backdrop for a story of family, both the created kind and the one linked by blood. Sykes is a revelation in the film as a woman holding her life together by a thin thread, with the help of a kindly boxing gym owner played by Abbott Elementary’s William Stanford Davis.
In our conversation, Miller and I discuss the genesis of her film, her unlikely protagonist, and her film is a boxing movie that isn’t really a boxing movie.
The Contending: Wanda’s background is obviously in comedy, and most of the roles she’s taken as an actor have been in comedies. Some might think that she was an odd choice for this straight dramatic role. What did you see that made you want to work with Wanda on this project?
Tamika Miller: I’ve been a fan of Wanda Sykes for a very long time. When I set out to cast this script, I always had Wanda in mind. As a storyteller, as a director, this was a story I had not seen before on the screen. I had not seen a woman boxing trainer in the male-dominated field of boxing training a potential champion for a World Championship. We know she’s a brilliant comedian. We know she’s a brilliant actress and Emmy-winning writer, all those things. My pitch to Wanda was, look, you are a woman in the male-dominated field of comedy, and you have been slaying it for over two decades. It’s that kind of fearlessness and vulnerability that I want in this role. I’m grateful she said yes.
The Contending: I think it’s easy to see Wanda as gritty and spunky. I don’t think that takes any imagination at all. Her character is also in a financially strapped position. She’s briefly homeless in the film. She’s also in recovery from. What was Wanda’s reaction to being offered the part, considering she had never done anything like it before?
Tamika Miller: She did not see this coming. She was not looking for a dramatic role. To hear her tell the story, when she read the script, she was like wait, what? There are no, ” Waits in here. (Laughs). Where’s the comedy? And I had the pleasure and the privilege of sitting down with her, because she was genuinely curious, why me? She would say, what? Queen Latifah wasn’t available? (Laughs). She wasn’t expecting this role, but she was definitely up for the challenge. I told her, “I’m only thinking of you for this role.” Also, deep down inside, I knew that comedians have very successfully made the transition from comedy to drama and have won awards: obviously Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, Monique, the list goes on and on. I didn’t think it would be a huge stretch for her. It was just giving her the opportunity to do what I always felt she was able to do.
The Contending: While watching the film, I thought of a real-life trainer with experience similar to the character Wanda plays, Ann Wolfe, who trained men in boxing for years. Was Ann at all in your mind when you were putting this together?
Tamika Miller: There was a time when I was a bit obsessed with boxing as a workout, and I trained at a pretty notable gym in Hollywood, California—Wild Card boxing gym—owned by Freddie Roach, who’s a Hall of Fame trainer, and many champions have come out of there: Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, James Toney. It was in those years, when I was working out there and getting to know the trainers and the cast of characters who frequented the gym, that Undercard was born. At the time, Lucia Rijker was a trainer there. And Lucia is a former women’s boxing champion as well. So yes, the short answer is, of course, I thought of Ann Wolfe, but I also thought of Lucia Rijker. They are the two most notable women boxing trainers. So those two people were definitely on my mind while writing this.
The Contending: Has the sport always had a draw to you, or did it begin with joining Wild Card Gym?
Tamika Miller: It began with joining the gym. I had not set out to write a script where boxing is the backdrop. This is not just a boxing film. For me, the themes of the relationship between a mother and son, and alcoholism are even more prevalent in the film. I chose boxing to be the backdrop. I like boxing. I enjoy watching boxing. I know a little something about boxing, but I was drawn to telling this story because I was just in that gym, and I was like, wow, I could not make this up in terms of some of the people I got to meet and got to know.
The Contending: One of the things that’s unique about your film is that, until the final fight, the previous fights are relatively short and filmed very tightly. I thought that was interesting because, as you say, boxing is a backdrop for the story that you’re telling. It is a key component, but it seemed to me that what you were leaning on was the character study.
Tamika Miller: That was definitely purposeful, because it’s not a boxing film. And to your point, it really is this character study. I knew, without giving too much away, that the final fight would need to stand on its own; it would need to trump anything that came before it. I think that in holding back, if you will, these other preliminary fights, it was a bigger payoff at the end by getting to draw that out dramatically. For me, it was really about getting to the heart of what Cheryl was trying to do. It wasn’t just about training her son, but it was about reclaiming her family, and her own sort of redemption as a fallen champion as well. All of those themes were very much at the forefront for me, rather than the boxing sequences.
The Contending: Wanda and Bentley Green, who plays her son Keith, have one of my two favorite scenes in the film, the one where Bentley says to her, “You aren’t going to do to that little girl like you did me.” Wanda’s character has a little girl she’s taking care of, and sometimes characters like Keith are angry at the person the parent is spending time with now, whether it makes sense or not, because they’re hurt because of what they didn’t get from their parent. It really showed an interesting aspect of his character.
Tamika Miller: That is my favorite scene in the film. That was the scene that, for me, and I hope for the audience, really shifts everything. It is what you would call a reconciliation scene of sorts between a mother and son. First of all, Bentley Green is a powerhouse. He is a phenomenal young actor, and he brought such passion, commitment, and dedication to this role. He was always in the zone from beginning to end, just locked into this character. I got to rehearse with Wanda and Bentley for only a couple of days before filming. My process, in terms of rehearsal, we actually didn’t go to the text of the script too much. It was really more about these two individuals getting to know each other, becoming comfortable with one another, and being able to be vulnerable with one another. That scene wasn’t one we even rehearsed. So when we got there to shoot this scene, which is a very potentially draining scene for both actors, I didn’t do many takes. I think I did a couple of takes, maybe, because I wanted to honor what was going on emotionally for the actors, and I’m the kind of storyteller and director that if we got it, we got it. There’s no need to keep it going. That scene had to happen for me, as a storyteller and co-writer. My writing partner, Anita Cal, and I both really love that scene because both characters are so vulnerable in that moment. Without giving too much away, Keith is there for a reason, sort of asking for forgiveness after betraying his mother and trainer. It is a brilliant scene of just two people who are completely naked and open.
The Contending: Estella Kahiha, as Meka, the little girl Cheryl is taking care of, is one of the most unaffected child actors I’ve seen in some time. When Meka and Cheryl are at the beach, Meka picks up a starfish, and Cheryl takes it back to the ocean because it can’t live out of the water. I thought that was sweet. Then the scene moves to Meka speaking about wanting to see mermaids with afros. What it made me think about is: you can tell me if I’m crazy here, but there’s a whole history of art, whether it’s Shakespeare or Greek mythology, that is often cut off from people of color. That little girl thinking about mermaids with afros and the inclusiveness is really touching.
Tamika Miller: Hearing you speak about that scene in full transparency, I have tears in my eyes because that scene came later. That scene was something I wrote. I just said I need to have this scene. What was important to me was twofold. One, I wanted to show Cheryl as this multidimensional, layered character, not just this woman who is a former alcoholic or who’s been down on her luck, who’s been evicted. When she’s talking to Meka about believing we live many lives, and you could be an elephant, you could be a mermaid. There’s something very beautiful about not only the exchange but also layering Cheryl as a character, like this is also part of who she is. She is also infusing that imagination into Meka: that you can be who you want to be. You may have been a mermaid. The fact that I chose to have this little black doll with two afro puffs, that Meka would carry everywhere, was, for me, saying in so many words the importance of representation. Being able to see ourselves reflected, even in the doll, and Meka having that doll with her at all times, and seeing herself. So when she’s asking about mermaids, of course, that’s what mermaids look like. They have brown skin and big afros, because that’s her world. That’s her imagination.
The Contending: Keith is biologically her child. Meka is not. But there’s also a created family with Baba T, the character played by William Stanford Davis. What was so enjoyable about his performance was that I think so many people see him as the very funny Abbott Elementary janitor, and he just seemed to slide into this role. He plays this very different character with such ease.
Tamika Miller: Stan, as we call him, is a brilliant actor. It is interesting because we know him now because he’s on one of the most popular television shows on the air right now. But Stan has actually done quite a bit of dramatic work. I got to see his dramatic work before casting him, and I was like oh, hands down. So that’s what I was drawn to, not Abbott Elementary, not the comedy. He is Baba T. It wasn’t a stretch for me to cast him. He’s born to play this role. There’s something very easy about him and how he takes up space. Cheryl is the character taking up a certain amount of space as the lead. But Stan, as Baba T compliments her so wonderfully.
The Contending: Most boxing films are not shot in such a visually bright way. The film takes place in Florida, so it lends itself to a sort of brightness. But a lot of boxing films are dark, and they’re grimy. Not that your film doesn’t have any grit. I don’t mean to say that, but there is a lot of light in this film and a lot of beauty in the surroundings. That’s unusual to see in a boxing film. It feels very intentional.
Tamika Miller: That’s a really good question because my mind is going to the beach, which is supposed to be bright, right? But I have to give props to my cinematographer, Ana Amortegui, who was such a great collaborator, and we really set out to create a palette that was quite different from any boxing film we had ever seen, even down to the boxing sequence at the end. When I go and look at the stills from that sequence, we really talked about color, the reds, the greens, the blacks; we were very purposeful in how we shot it. I’m so glad you asked this question. Because it is set in Liberty City, a poor, working-class community, one might expect the downtrodden parts, but it’s quite the opposite in terms of its vibrancy. There are murals, and there’s so much color. There’s so much life there. It was important to me to show that there’s a lot of light coming from this community, even though there are people struggling in it.
The Contending: The people who tend to go into boxing are underdogs. It’s often because boxing is one of the few avenues that are available to them. You don’t see many people who go into boxing with dreams of going to college and becoming bankers, lawyers, doctors, etc. Most come from disadvantaged situations and were already fighters in some sense, and there was a boxing gym there. But your film also argues that winning a fight isn’t the only important thing for a fighter. Winning your self-respect counts, too.
Tamika Miller: You hit the nail right on the head. If you look at a film like Rocky, yes, there’s the self-respect that Rocky gains. Even though he lost the fight, he became the people’s champion. It was important to me that when making Undercard, the story of mother and son, that’s the prevailing relationship that we want to walk away with. It’s less about who wins and who loses. For me, as a storyteller and a co-writer, it’s really about what you, as the viewer, as the audience member, take away. What do you care most about? Hopefully, you care more about this mother and son, and whether or not there’s redemption, versus whether or not someone wins a fight.
Undercard debuts in theaters on February 27, 2026
