'Entertainment Weekly': Halle Berry Fights Her Way Into The Director's Chair With 'Bruised'

Halle Berry is no stranger to going all out for her roles, but her latest role in 'Bruised' sees her visiting new territory as the film serves as her directorial debut.

In the September issue of Entertainment Weekly, the cover star opens up about fighting ageism in Hollywood, not being in love with her resume, continuing to fight after her historic win and pushing through injury. Read quotes for her beautiful shoot below:

On Ageism: "It used to be when you were 40 your career was done, and I mean really done," she says. "Or you had to wait until you were old enough to play a grandma, and then you could have another bite at the apple, right? 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."

On Past Roles: "It's like, okay, that's a film I can't say I'm totally in love with, but this isn't a hobby. It's how I take care of my children. But I try to keep that sense of wonder and stay curious. Because being a Black woman, I haven't always had parts that I absolutely love.'"

On Her Fight Post-Oscar: "It was surprising," she acknowledges of her prospects post-Oscar, when the expected deluge of offers for prestige directors and projects never came. "Because I thought they were going to just back up the truck and drop them off at my house, right? When you have a historic win like that, you think, 'Oh, this is going to fundamentally change.' 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 try to fight to make a way out of no way."

On Pushing Through Injury: With Wick, 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. The director in me said, 'I didn't come this far and work this hard to go home.'"