Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry visits WIRED to answer her most searched questions from Google. What was Halle Berry's first film role? Was Halle Berry Miss America? What does she remember about playing Storm in the original X-Men films? What James Bond movie was Halle Berry in? How long did she train for her role in John Wick 3? Halle Berry answers these questions and many more on the WIRED Autocomplete Interview.THE UNION premieres on Netflix August 16, 2024. https://netflix.com/THEUNIONDirector: Paul Gulyas; Justin WolfsonEditor: Michael SuyedaTalent: Halle BerryLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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00:00Hi, I'm Halle Berry, and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.
00:06Yes, I haven't Googled myself.
00:13What was Halle Berry's first movie role? Jungle Fever. I was very method back then in Jungle Fever days.
00:20I had to go to a real crack den. I didn't shower, didn't wash my hair, all that. I've evolved since then. Let's just say.
00:28What are Halle Berry's dogs' names in John Wick? Oh God, what were my dogs' names?
00:34I feel like a terrible dog mom. The only names that come to my mind right now are my own dogs.
00:41Jackson and Roman and my two kitties, Coco and Boots. I don't remember. I forgot. Sorry.
00:46What did Halle Berry win an Oscar for? Oh, well, that was Monsters Ball, Letitia Musgrove.
00:53I mean, anytime you win an Academy Award, you automatically get put in this illustrious club that not many are part of.
01:00So that was career changing, life changing. Probably the highlight. Definitely one of the highlights of my career.
01:07What is Halle Berry's latest movie? My last two movies were The Union and Never Let Go that hasn't come out yet.
01:15Those are my last two movies.
01:19Was Halle Berry Miss America? No, I was not Miss America. I was Miss Teen All-American.
01:27I was Miss Ohio in the Miss USA pageant and I was Miss USA in the Miss World pageant.
01:35I sort of got into my very first pageant by my boyfriend at the time when I wore my prom dress because he wanted to date a beauty pageant queen.
01:43So it kind of wrangled me in there. And once you win one of those things, you kind of have to go to the next and the next and the next and the next.
01:48So I ended up doing a pageant cycle that I didn't actually ask to get put on, but I loved it.
01:53It was a great proving ground for me.
01:55It taught me how to talk in front of people, how to be comfortable in my own skin, think on my feet, able to do interviews.
02:00Like it was a wonderful thing to have done. So don't regret it.
02:03How did Halle Berry become an actress? Quite by accident, actually.
02:08I didn't really set out to be an actor. I wanted to be a journalist.
02:11I wanted to travel and go to war zones and sort of report on what was really happening in the world.
02:16And I moved to Chicago and found that I was bored.
02:19And I decided to take a class at Second City.
02:21And it was my teacher there that said, I think you have some raw, natural talent.
02:26Have you thought about being an actor?
02:27And that was the first time I thought about it when I was about 20 years old, 21 years old.
02:32What James Bond movie was Halle Berry in?
02:36That would be Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan.
02:39He will always be my Bond. Always. I'm a Pierce Brosnan fan.
02:43He restored my faith in men on that movie.
02:46There couldn't be a human who is more of a gentleman than Pierce Brosnan.
02:50Bond wasn't on my wish list, no, to be in one, but I loved the movies always.
02:55But having been in one, I feel like I'm a part of cinematic history.
02:59Those movies are iconic.
03:01They will forever be a part of our history.
03:03And I'm really honored to have been a part of one, especially with Pierce.
03:08How long did Halle Berry train for John Wick 3?
03:12Oh, my God. A long time.
03:15Probably eight or nine months before doing that movie.
03:18I trained with, you know, my fight team.
03:21I had to learn jujitsu and movie fighting, some taekwondo, some muay thai.
03:26I also had to train with the dogs.
03:28I did a lot of training for John Wick 3.
03:32Halle Berry as Storm.
03:36Yeah, that happened.
03:37I really loved playing Storm.
03:39You know, being in the world of the X-Men and the mutants was always really important to me
03:43because being a woman of color, I have often felt on the outside of things.
03:49I've often felt marginalized and overlooked and unseen.
03:52And that's what the X-Men were all about.
03:54These mutants finding their voice and finding a way to be seen
03:57and appreciated for who they really were.
03:59And as a black woman, I really related to that.
04:01So it was fun to put on the skin of Storm and to fly
04:05and to be a part of that kind of storytelling.
04:08I thought it was really important.
04:09Halle Berry, vegan?
04:11Oh, hell no.
04:13That's not true.
04:15Nothing against vegans.
04:16I love people that are vegans.
04:17Great, you're vegan.
04:18But I could never be a vegan.
04:20Halle Berry, pixie cut.
04:22Yes.
04:23You know, I got that pixie cut because as a young actor,
04:25I used to go on auditions and I would sit in the room
04:28and there'd be 20 other girls that looked just like me.
04:31Long, curly hair.
04:31You couldn't tell us apart.
04:32The casting director would kind of go, uh, you.
04:36And I realized that I had to somehow distinguish myself
04:40from the others.
04:41So all of a sudden, one day I decided
04:42to cut all of my hair off.
04:44And that's where that pixie cut came from.
04:46And the first audition after cutting that hair,
04:49I got my first acting job on a show called Living Dolls
04:52with that pixie cut.
04:53So the pixie worked for me.
04:55Halle Berry, Time 100.
04:57Oh, yes.
04:58I just received this wonderful honor from Time,
05:01Time 100 and Health this year
05:03because I've been fiercely advocating in Washington
05:07and I'm starting an online health company
05:10called Respin Health to really help women
05:13starting at perimenopause and through midlife.
05:16It's a female longevity brand
05:18and I'm super excited about that.
05:19There's been so little research,
05:21so little clinical trials.
05:23You know, doctors only spend one chapter
05:26in medical school learning about the menopausal body.
05:28So it's time.
05:30It's time for women.
05:31It's time for us to get the healthcare that we need.
05:36Where did Halle Berry,
05:38oh, these ones always scare me.
05:40Where did Halle Berry grew up?
05:42Well, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio,
05:44a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio called Oakwood Village.
05:47And I was a cheerleader and I played the flute
05:49and I was president of my class
05:50and editor of the school paper.
05:51That's what I did when I was growing up.
05:54Did Halle Berry sing in Dorothy Dandridge?
05:58Well, no, but I pretended to sing.
06:01Wendy Williams actually did my movie singing.
06:04I wanted to sing, but I realized I could not.
06:08So they were like, we could use auto-tune,
06:10we could use all these things.
06:12And I thought, no, no, no,
06:13Dorothy deserves better than that.
06:14So we got Wendy Williams,
06:15who really is a beautiful singer.
06:17And she came and did the Dorothy singing for me.
06:20Halle Berry, Kevin Hart movie.
06:22I guess you could say it was a movie.
06:23It was Kevin's standup movie.
06:26And he asked me to be a part of the opening,
06:29which was a really fun.
06:30It was the first time I really got to meet Kevin too.
06:32And it was a fun little bit that we did.
06:34It was fun.
06:35Halle Berry in the Flintstones.
06:37Oh yes, Rosetta Stone.
06:39I was in the Flintstone.
06:40My character was modeled after Sharon Stone.
06:43I was supposed to be this vampy, sexy, slinky character
06:47that was sort of channeling Sharon Stone.
06:50That was really important for me
06:51because as a black woman being in Bedrock
06:55was pretty revolutionary at the time.
06:57I grew up watching the Flintstones
06:58and there were no black people in Bedrock
07:00until I got to play Rosetta Stones in Flintstones.
07:03So that was groundbreaking for me personally.
07:08I think people also wanted to see,
07:10you know, a black person in Bedrock.
07:14Halle Berry, Never Let Go.
07:16Ooh, that's a movie that I have coming out this fall.
07:19I'm really proud of this one.
07:21It's the first movie that my partner, Holly Jeter,
07:23and I have produced with our new company, Halle Holly.
07:26It's something you've never seen before.
07:28It is seeing a mother and her two children
07:32in an environment that is very spooky.
07:37It's a psychological thriller kind of horror movie.
07:41And I didn't think it was gonna be as scary
07:42as it actually is.
07:43I just saw it the other day for the first time
07:45and it's legit scary, probably because it's so real.
07:50Halle Berry, Baps.
07:52Aw, Baps.
07:54That makes me think of Robert Townsend,
07:56the late, great Natalie Dessau.
07:59She's passed away now, but she was my partner in crime.
08:02We had so much fun.
08:03Ruth Carter did those amazing costumes
08:05that people dress up year after year at Halloween
08:08as those characters.
08:10And it was an entree into comedy for me.
08:13And I couldn't think of a better person to do that with
08:15than Robert Townsend.
08:16It was over the top slapstick,
08:18but it was a movie that had heart.
08:19To this day, people tell me how much they liked that movie.
08:23So, and Halle Berry, Extent.
08:26This is what people are wanting.
08:28They're looking this stuff up, really.
08:29Extent, Extent was a while ago.
08:31That was a television show I did.
08:32It was a show about a woman going to space.
08:37And it was a lot of technical research
08:39that I had to do in that movie.
08:41And the hours, the hours were really long.
08:44I had just had a baby, so I was nursing.
08:46I would shoot and then I would go into my nursery and nurse.
08:49I would shoot, come back.
08:50It was my first time having to be a mom
08:53and deal with what it was to be a mom,
08:55but also be a mom at work on a filming set,
08:57like 16 hours a day.
08:58It was probably the time I worked the hardest, for sure.
09:02Last one, Halle Berry, Oscar Dress.
09:07That's a fond memory.
09:08That was a dress by Elie Saab.
09:11And he wasn't really a known designer at that time,
09:14but I'm someone that doesn't always go
09:17for the hottest designer at the time.
09:20I go for the dress and what reflects how I want to feel
09:24in that moment.
09:24And that was risky for me,
09:27but the film, Monsters Ball, that I won the Oscar for
09:30felt risky to me at the time that I made that movie.
09:33So it was just sort of an homage
09:36to the risky feeling I had about the movie.
09:38So I decided to wear a risky dress.
09:40It's one of probably my most favorite dresses of all time.
09:45I don't know.
09:46I'm surprised anybody, you know,
09:48Googles me at all, actually.
09:50So it was interesting.
09:51That's all the questions today.
09:53Thanks, Wired.
09:53Until next time.