Halle Berry definitely wasn’t easing into a comfortable director’s chair for her directorial debut, Bruised. In a recent Vanity Fair interview, the star reports six-hour training sessions in the gym to into the shape of her MMA fighter character. The training overlapped into her time filming John Wick 3 and the actor stated that she found inspiration in Wick star Keanu Reeves, marvelling at the 57-year-old’s ability to perform Wick’s challenging action sequences.
Reflecting on her own training process for Bruised, Berry said, “When I started training for John Wick I already knew that Bruised was coming. I sort of got the offer to do those movies around the same time. So the beauty of that was when I was training for John Wick I was also training for Bruised at the same time, in a small way. Part of that training was just getting my body used to five, six hours of training a day. I was changing my diet, learning about recovery. I was really pushing myself to the limit and I knew that was what I’d have to do for Bruised. It was one big period of time when I knew I’d do these two movies back to back that would challenge me like I’ve never been challenged before.”
In Bruised, the actor/director portrays former UFC fighter Jackie “Pretty Bull” Justice, who overcomes multiple challenges to earn a new shot at a Mixed Martial Arts title. Bruised reached the number one most watched spot on Netflix after it was released on the service prompting them to offer Berry a further multi-film contract that would allow her to add to her directorial resume.
Berry is already well known to audiences for her work in blockbuster tentpoles such as the X-Men films and the James Bond franchise but also in critically acclaimed work such as Monsters’ Ball for which she earned the Acadamy Award for her performance. Bruised marks a new chapter in Berry’s career and the new Netflix contract ensure we will be seeing more of her behind the camera efforts in the years to come.
The star doesn’t appear to be disappearing behind the camera though. She is scheduled to next appear in the Rolan Emmerich Sci-Fi disaster film Moonfall which will be released in theaters in February 2022.