Halle Berry Had an ‘Out of Body’ Experience Doing ‘Monster’s Ball’ Love Scene
Halle Berry scored one of her most memorable roles with the 2002 feature Monster’s Ball. She knew the Oscar-winning role would be something special as soon as she read the script. But when she saw herself in the movie, even Berry was unprepared with how unfamiliar she’d look.
Halle Berry couldn’t see herself when watching ‘Monster’s Ball’
Berry agreed that the Marc Foster-directed movie left her exposed in a way she never was before, both literally and figuratively. Berry had to play a very complicated and sometimes unlikable character in Monster’s Ball. The role required her to channel real emotions to truly embody the part.
“Well, it was that kind of movie,” Berry once told BBC. “It was about really servicing those characters and making them as flawed and as complicated as a human being is. Marc’s request of us as actors was to be real in the moment, not be afraid of the material, and not to worry about doing the politically correct thing.”
Perhaps one of the film’s most talked about sequences was the love scene between Berry and her co-star Billy Bob Thornton. The scene was highlighted for both its intimacy and aggression. But Berry felt the moment wasn’t just about two characters being sexually attracted to each other.
“I like to call that scene the kiss of life, because from that moment on the choices that these characters made indelibly affected their life and made them able to have a better one. The scene wasn’t about sexual titillation in any way,” she said.
But when Berry saw the scene herself, she admitted she couldn’t believe she was the person on screen.
“Honestly, I had an out-of-body experience,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, look at her!’ I never really connected it with myself, and I think that’s how I am able to look at it. The character was so far removed from who I am really. It’s the first time in any movie-making experience of mine that I was able to watch a film and not be able to really see me.”
Halle Berry felt ‘Monster’s Ball’ changed her, but didn’t change her position in the film industry
Berry experienced a career high after Monster’s Ball, earning herself her first and only Oscar for Best Actress. But although the movie gave her an incredible moment, things didn’t change for Berry the way she expected them to. Her movie opportunities didn’t magically increase afterwards, and she still had to be careful when looking for film roles.
“It was surprising,” Berry said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly not too long ago. “Because I thought they were going to just back up the truck and drop them off at my house, right? When you have a historic win like that, you think, ‘Oh, this is going to fundamentally change.’ It did fundamentally change me, but it didn’t change my place in the business overnight. I still had to go back to work. I still had to try to fight to make a way out of no way.”
Halle Berry shared her love scenes with Billy Bob Thornton were unnatural
Berry and Thornton didn’t do much talking before their intimate scene. Both were in long-term relationships at the time. Berry was married to Eric Benet, while Billy Bob Thornton was wedded to Angelina Jolie. Berry felt the fact that they both had partners at home made their love scenes a bit easier. They were supposed to feel uncomfortable.
“It was one of the last things we shot,” she once told The Arizona Republic. “We always knew it was in there. We both knew we were married, we both knew what we were doing and that it was very unnatural. But we are professionals, and we know it is a part of moviemaking. We are both so much in love with other people, and that made it easier.”
