Halle Berry

Halle Berry (Cleveland, Ohio, August 14, 1966) is an American actress, director, and producer who has won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Emmy.

Berry was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s and has been involved in the production of several of the films in which she starred. Berry is also a Revlon model. Before becoming an actress, she began modeling and participated in various beauty pageants, finishing as first runner-up in the Miss United States pageant and placing sixth in the Miss World pageant in 1986. Her film breakthrough was in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992), alongside Eddie Murphy, which led him to films such as the family comedy The Flintstones (1994), the political comedy-drama Bulworth (1998) and the TV movie Presenting Dorothy. Dandridge (1999), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, among many other awards.

She is the only woman of African descent to have won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.

Career

Beginnings

Halle Berry, Miss Ohio USA 1986.

Her mother, Judith, is a nurse and has been with her all her life, unlike her father, who left the family when Halle was just 4 years old. Her father returned four years later, but he was a very aggressive man. Her mother is of English descent and her father is of African descent.

She placed second in the Miss USA pageant in 1986, which earned her the right to represent the United States at Miss World in London, where she was a finalist, placing sixth. She has since worked as a model and actress. In 2002, she became the first African-descendant actress to receive an Academy Award for Best Leading Actress, for her performance in Monster's Ball.

One of his role models was Dorothy Dandridge, a singer, dancer and actress, whom he named when picking up the Oscar and whom he had portrayed in a TV movie years before. Dandridge was the first black actress to be nominated for an Oscar as the lead in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones, whose performance earned Halle an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

1990

Berry's film debut was in a small role in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (1991), in which she played Vivian, a drug addict. That same year, Berry had her first co-starring role in Strictly Business and a short role in 'The Last Boy Scout'. In 1992, Berry played a career woman who falls in love with the title character played by Eddie Murphy in the romantic comedy Boomerang. The following year, she came to public attention in the television adaptation of Queen: The Story of an American Family , based on the book by Alex Haley. Berry was in the live action The Flintstones film playing the role of "Sharon Stone," a sultry secretary who seduced Fred Flintstone.

Berry took on a more serious role, playing a former drug addict fighting to regain custody of his son in Losing Isaiah (1995), starring opposite Jessica Lange. She played Sandra Beecher in Race the Sun (1996), which was based on a true story, filmed in Australia and co-starred with Kurt Russell in Executive Decision. Beginning in 1996, she was a spokesperson for Revlon for seven years, renewing her contract in 2004.

He starred opposite Natalie Deselle Reid in the 1997 comedy film B * A * P * S. In 1998, Berry received acclaim for his role in Bulworthas a smart woman raised by activists who gives a politician (Warren Beatty) a new lease on life. The same year, she played singer Zola Taylor, one of the three wives of pop singer Frankie Lymon, in the biopic Why Fools Fall in Love. In the 1999 HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, she portrayed the first black woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. For Berry it was a sincere project in which she got involved to the point of presenting it, co-producing it and fighting intensely for it to be accepted. Her performance there was recognized with several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award.

2000

Berry played Storm in the film adaptation of the comic book series X-Men (2000) and its sequels, X-Men 2 (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). In 2001, Berry appeared in the film Swordfish, which showed her first scene in topless. At first, she refused to be filmed in that position (sunbathing), but she changed her mind when Warner Brothers increased her fees considerably. The brief appearance of her breasts added half a million dollars to the agreed payroll. But Berry considered these stories as rumors and was quick to deny them.After turning down numerous roles that required nudity, she stated that she decided to do Swordfish because her then-husband, Eric Benét supported and encouraged her to do so. to take risks. Berry appeared as Leticia Musgrove, the troubled wife of an executed murderer (Sean Combs), in the 2001 feature Monster's Ball, a stark but hopeful naturalistic drama about racism set in the South. This outstanding work earned her the National Board of Review and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress; in an interesting coincidence, she became the first woman of color to win the Academy Award for Best Actress (earlier in her career, she played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American to be nominated for Best Actress, and who was born in the same hospital than Berry, in Cleveland, Ohio).

As the "new Bond girl," Giacinta 'Jinx' Johnson, in the 2002 blockbuster Die Another Day, Berry recreated a scene from Dr. Not rising from the surf like a new Venus, in imitation and quote of the Ursula Andress of 40 years ago, when she emerged in that guise before James Bond. Lindy Hemming, costume designer of Die Another Day, had insisted that Berry wear a bikini and a knife as a tribute. Berry has said of the scene: "It's flashy", "exciting", "sexy& #34;, "provocative" and "will keep me out there after winning an Oscar". The bikini scene was shot in Cádiz; the location was reported to be cold and windy, and footage of Berry wrapped in thick towels between takes to try and stay warm has been released. [39] According to an ITV news poll, Jinx was voted the fourth toughest screen girl of all time. Berry was injured during filming, when debris from a smoke grenade affected her eye. She pulled out for a 30-minute operation.After winning the Academy Award, she was asked by the writers to broaden her role so that she would get more screen time in X-Men 2.

She starred in the psychological thriller Gothika opposite Robert Downey, Jr in November 2003, but during filming she broke her arm in a scene with Downey, who broke it. twisted too hard. Production was halted for eight weeks. It was a moderate success at the US box office ($60 million); he won another 80 abroad.[44] Berry appeared in metal band Limp Limpkit's music video for Behind Blue Eyes, composed for the film's soundtrack. The same year she was named first in FHM's World's 100 Sexiest Women poll.

Berry starred in the title role in the film Catwoman, for which she received $12.5 million. But it was a true failure: having cost more than 100 million dollars, it grossed only 17 million in its first weekend and is considered one of the worst films ever made by critics. In addition, Hale Berry was distinguished with the Award Razzie for Worst Actress for her role; however, she did bite the bullet and appeared at the ceremony to accept the award in person (making her the third person and second actor to do so)[48], thus demonstrating her sense of humor and deeming it a necessary experience. be at "bottom of rock" holding the Academy Award in one hand and the Razzie in the other, he said, "I never in my life thought I'd be here, winning a Razzie. It's not like I aspired to be here, but thank you. When I was a little girl, my mother told me that if you can't be a good loser, then there's no way you can be a good winner.

In the thriller Perfect Stranger (2007), Berry starred opposite Bruce Willis as a reporter who goes undercover to discover the murderer of her childhood friend. The film grossed a modest $73 million worldwide and received a lukewarm reception from critics, who noted that, despite the presence of Berry and Willis, it was "very complicated to make, even more. of presenting a twist ending that is irritating and superfluous'. Her next release in 2007 was the drama Things We Lost in the Fire, co-starring Benicio del Toro, where she played the role of a widow recent sympathy for her late husband's troublesome friend. This was the first time that she worked with a director, the Danish Susanne Bier, and she appreciated the new experience of "thinking the same way"; that she offered him.Though the film garnered only 8.6 million from its global release, it garnered positive reviews from various authors. The Austin Chronicle found the film "an impeccably constructed, perfectly paced drama inside and out" and stressed that "Berry here is as bright and good as she has always been."

In April 2007, Berry received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Kodak Theater at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the motion picture industry. By the end of that decade she had established herself as one of the highest-priced actresses in Hollywood: it was estimated that she earned an average of $10 million per film.

2010

Berry appeared in a segment of the independent anthology comedy Movie 43 (2013), which the Chicago Sun-Times called "the version of Citizen Kane& #3. 4;. Berry found further success in her next performance, as a 9-1-1 operator who takes a call from a girl kidnapped by a serial killer, in the crime thriller The Call (2013). Berry was drawn to "the idea of being a part of a film that was so powerful for women. We don't often play roles like this, where ordinary people become heroic and do something extraordinary'. Manohla Dargis of the New York Times found the film "a truly creepy thriller& #34;, while critic Dwight Brown felt that "the script gives Berry a blue-collar character that he can make accessible, vulnerable and gritty [...]". The Call was a sleeper hit, grossing US$68.6 million worldwide.

In 2014, Berry joined the star and served as co-executive producer on the CBS drama series Extant, where she took on the role of Molly Woods, an astronaut struggling to reconnect. with her husband and android son after spending 13 years. months in space The show ran for two seasons until 2015 and received very positive reviews from critics. USA Today commented: "She [Halle Berry] brings dignity and gravity to Molly, a projected intelligence which allows you to buy her as an astronaut and see what has happened to her as terrifying instead of ridiculous. Berry agrees, and you float along'. Also in 2014, Berry launched a new production company, 606 Films, with producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. It is named after the Anti-Paparazzi Bill, SB 606, which the actress pushed for and which was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013. The new company came about as part of an agreement for Berry to work at Extant.

In the stand-up comedy, concert film Kevin Hart: What Now?(2016), Berry appeared as herself, opposed to Kevin Hart, attending a game event of poker gone terribly wrong.. Kidnap, a kidnapping thriller Berry filmed in 2014, was released in 2017. In the film, she played a waitress following a vehicle when her son is kidnapped by its occupants. Kidnap grossed $34 million and garnered mixed reviews from writers, who felt it "veers into poorly written exploitation too often to take advantage of its pulpy premise -- or the still-impressive talents. de [Berry]". She played an agent employed by a secret American spy organization in the action comedy sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), as part of a cast made up of Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Julianne Moore and Elton John. While the critical response towards the film was mixed, it grossed US$414 million worldwide.

Alongside Daniel Craig, Berry played a working-class mother during the 1992 Los Angeles riots in Deniz Gamze's drama Ergüven Kings (2017). The film found a limited theatrical release after its initial screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, and as part of an overall lukewarm reception, Variety noted: "It must be said that Berry she has given some of the best and worst performances of the last quarter century, but this is perhaps the only one that swings between both extremes in the same film". She took on the role of an assassin in the film John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, which was released on May 17, 2019 by Lionsgate.

Personal life

Relationships

Halle Berry in 2004.

Like actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge, whom she portrayed in a 1999 biopic, Halle Berry suffered abuse from one of her first boyfriends, who caused her severe hearing loss. Her first husband, David Justice, a baseball player, was also reportedly violent. After a period of depression and a suicide attempt, she divorced after three years of marriage. She was previously married to musician Eric Benet, whom she divorced in 2005. Berry also broke up with Gabriel Aubry, her model boyfriend, and the father of her daughter Nahla when she was 2 years old.

The actress and Olivier Martínez were married on July 13, 2013 at the Château des Condé in Vallery, Burgundy region (France). Their first child together (the second for Halle) was born on October 5, 2013 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and is named Maceo-Robert. After two years of marriage, they divorced in October 2015.

Identity and Racial Issues

Berry has stated that the way people have reacted to her because of her ethnicity is often the result of ignorance. Her own self-identification has been influenced by her mother, as the actress once said in these words:

After many conversations about the issue, my mother corroborates what she had always taught me: that even though you are half black and half white, you will be discriminated against in this country as a black man. When people see you, they won't know you have a white mother unless you bear a sign on your forehead. And even if they know it, many people think that if you have a ounce of black blood you're black. So, therefore, I decided to let people categorize me as they want.

During the taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on October 19, 2007, Berry flashed a distorted image of his face, commenting, 'This is where I look like my Jewish cousin!" During the writing of the show, the comment was obscured by a laugh track. Berry later stated: "What happened was I was backstage before the show and I have three girls who are Jewish who work for me. We were going through the photos to see which ones looked silly, and one of my Jewish friends said [of the photo with the big nose], 'That could be your Jewish cousin!' And I guess it was fresh in my mind, and it had just come out of my mouth, but I didn't mean to offend anybody, I didn't mean to do any harm - and after the show I realized it could be seen as offensive, so I asked him Jay to remove it, which he did."

For Ebony magazine in March 2011, Berry spoke about race relations, giving his opinion on what constitutes one's race. In particular, that of her daughter. Because while 2-year-old Nahla is the daughter of Berry and French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, the actress doesn't seem so keen to classify her daughter as mixed-race. "What I think is that's something he's going to have to decide," she told the magazine. "I am not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself, and that's what she's going to have to do: how she's going to identify herself in the world. And I think, to a large extent, that's based on how the world identifies her. This is how I identified myself." About her daughter, she says:

But I feel like she's black. I'm black and I'm his mother, and I believe in the theory of One-drop rule.

"If you're multi-racial, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge to encompass all of who you are, and yet find a way to identify yourself, and I think that's often difficult for us" he explained. "I identify as a black woman, but I have always wanted to integrate my mother and the white side of who I am as well. By choosing to do so, I've often wondered, 'Well, would that make her feel like she was invalidating her for choosing to identify more with the black side of me?'

Activism

Along with Pierce Brosnan, Cindy Crawford, Jane Seymour, Dick Van Dyke, Téa Leoni and Daryl Hannah, Berry successfully fought in 2006 against the proposed Cabrillo Port Liquefied Natural Gas facility off the coast of Malibu Berry said, "I care about the air we breathe, I care about marine life and the ocean ecosystem." In May 2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the facility. Hasty Pudding Theatricals awarded him the 2006 Woman of the Year award. Berry participated in a nearly 2,000-house cell phone banking campaign for Barack Obama in February 2008. In April 2013, she appeared in a "Chime for Change" campaign video clip 3. 4; of Gucci, whose goal is to raise funds and awareness about women's issues in terms of education, health, and justice. In August 2013, Berry testified alongside Jennifer Garner before the California State Assembly Judiciary Committee in support of of a bill that would protect children of celebrities from harassment by photographers. The bill passed in September.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Awards and nominations