Halle Berry Covers Women In Hollywood Issue Of 'Elle'

Trailblazer Halle Berry, who is still the only black Best Actress winner, is one of the nine stars featured on the November issue of Elle magazine, celebrating the honorees for this year's Women In Hollywood event, which will take place tomorrow (10/19).

When Halle Berry first read the script of her most recent film, Bruised—which she directs and stars in—she knew it wasn’t going to work for her. The Netflix movie, about a troubled mixed martial arts fighter who tries to get back into the sport when she regains custody of her son, was clearly written for an actress who could play an Irish Catholic woman in her early twenties. Berry was drawn to the intensely physical and emotional story, and identified with the motherhood subplot, but she recognized that the lead role would have to be reworked if a Black woman in her fifties was going to play her—even if it was a Black woman who has looked ageless for her entire career.

Another actress was considering the project, and Berry’s agent told her to wait to see if the film came to her instead. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I became obsessed,” Berry says. When the other actress eventually passed, Berry was ready. “I was then able to make my pitch for how I could reimagine it for someone like me,” Berry says. She helped rework the screenplay, and after meeting with several potential directors, she realized that she might be the best person for that job, too. The resulting film is harrowing and deeply affecting, with Berry again doing what she does best: showing us a complicated Black woman in a way we haven’t seen before onscreen.

Bruised shows Berry doing what she does best: portraying a complicated Black woman in a new way. But this time around, she’s also behind the camera.

[Click Here to Read More]