How Halle Berry Used Swordfish To Prepare Herself For Monster's Ball
While her title turn in "Catwoman" is undoubtedly the role Halle Berry regrets taking in her career, she oddly doesn't spurn her performance in the 2001 tech thriller "Swordfish," even though the film regretfully required the actor to take part in a brief but unnecessary nude scene.
In the film, Berry stars as Ginger, a member of a covert government operation headed by Gabriel (John Travolta) that recruits Stanley (Hugh Jackman) — a notorious cyberhacker — to hack into a Department of Defense server for nefarious reasons. The nudity happens in front of Stanley when Ginger reveals that she is sunbathing topless.
In a 2002 interview with Roger Ebert, Berry told the famed film critic that she immediately objected to the nude scene, but it didn't matter to the production. "Well, the nudity in 'Swordfish' was totally gratuitous," Berry told Ebert. "It didn't have to be there. I knew that when I read the script. I said, 'You know guys, this doesn't have to be here. You would have the same movie without it.' And [producer] Joel Silver said, 'Yeah, I know, but I want it anyway.'"
Turning a negative into a positive, Berry said she took the nudity mandate on as a challenge. "I thought, 'There's a reason this is being presented to me.' I now know what that reason was," Berry recalled for Ebert. "It was because 'Monster's Ball' was coming, and I would have never have been able to even think about tackling a role like 'Monster's Ball' had I not done 'Swordfish' and got through that inhibition that was somewhat holding me back."
Unbeknownst to the actor, her upcoming turn in "Monster Ball" would become the one role that changed the course of Berry's career forever.
Berry says the nudity in Monster's Ball was justified
Released in 2001, "Monster's Ball" chronicles the heartbreaking story of Hank (Billy Bob Thornton), a Georgia corrections officer left devastated after his son and fellow corrections officer, Sonny (Heath Ledger), dies by suicide before his eyes. Halle Berry also stars as Leticia, a widow who befriends Hank after he tried to help save her young son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun), who is fatally wounded after being struck by a car.
Before too long, Hank and Leticia comfort each other in their grief, with Hank unaware that he assisted in the execution of Leticia's husband, Lawrence (Sean Combs) on death row.
The key thing that Berry stressed with her nude scene in "Monster's Ball" was that, unlike "Swordfish," it wasn't gratuitous in the least. "With 'Monster's Ball,' it's not even about sex, that scene; it's so unsexy and it's not about sexual titillation," Berry explained to Roger Ebert. "It's about two people getting what they need — and that's the air to breathe. It's not a sexual thrill or sexual pleasure. Without that scene you don't understand why these people will be together; you understand after it why you want them to be together, why you root for them."
Without having that sort of compassion, Berry added for Ebert, "I don't think you would be able to make that big leap you have to make with their characters."
"Monster's Ball" ended up being a crowning achievement for Berry and a historical moment for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as she became the first woman of color to earn a best actress Oscar.
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