“Because I did it.
Nobody prepared me, either…
Thank my damn self.”
Halle Berry on the cover of EW’s September 2021 issue.James Macari for EW
She’s also learned the hard way how much that work could fall to her alone.
Soon afterHot Onesaired, she began shooting what would become her directorial debut,Bruised(due onNetflixNov.
When you’re young we all get chances, they’re a dime a dozen.
Halle Berry in ‘Bruised.'.JOHN BAER/NETFLIX
But when you’re at a certain stage in life it becomes something more impactful and meaningful, right?
And he said, ‘Great, we love that idea.
Now go find a director.'"
Halle Berry.James Macari for EW
You don’t usually break the same bones twice," she explains helpfully.)
Realizing the stakes, Berry chose to work through the pain and not pause production.
WithWick, she recalls, “I told the director about it, they told the insurance.
We had to shut down for months and it was a big ordeal.
On this, because it was an independent movie, we didn’t have a big budget.
But that was just her intensity…. Halle’s a special case.
It’s how I take care of my children.
But I attempt to keep that sense of wonder and stay curious.
Because being a Black woman, I haven’t always had parts that I absolutely love.’
It did fundamentally change me, but it didn’t change my place in the business overnight.
I still had to go back to work.
I still had to venture to fight to make a way out of no way.”
It’s an intimacy."
Berry is well aware that past roles haven’t always allowed for that same level of nuance or control.
I don’t want to feel like ‘Oh, I can only do award-worthy stuff.’
What is an award-worthy performance?"
I have evolved, I’ve moved on, I’m grown.
Let me live!"
she exclaims, as close to exasperated as she’s sounded all day.
“Social media has been great for that because I get to be who I am.
And they get to meet me where I’m at, not in the past.”
They want to stop it and start it.
So I think we have to start reimagining and rethinking how we’re evolving.
People have said to me, ‘You made an independent movie.
Why would you sell it to Netflix?’
Because I’m assured people will see it, and that’s the goal!
That is ultimately the goal."
(“Ten times!”
she says, laughing.
“I’m like, ‘Can we hey see something else?’
I mean, I couldn’t think that I’d be playing an MMA fighter at 54 years old.
Yet I did, so it’s got to be changing.
I’m proof of that.”
But she can still thank her damn self, to start.
To read more on Halle Berry,order the September issueofEntertainment Weeklyor find it on newsstands beginning Aug. 20.
