On March 24, 2002, Halle Berry took to the stage as the first Black woman to receive the Best Actress Oscar. The win – for her performance as a struggling widow who falls in love with her husband’s death row executioner in Monster’s Ball – meant “the door had been opened” for actresses of colour, she declared in her acceptance speech.
Following the accolade, Berry became the first Academy Award winner to appear as a leading Bond girl. Although, her role in Die Another Day was also significant, as she turned the concept on its head, portraying a grown-up woman who was capable of taking on 007.
Today, the 58-year-old has clocked up an impressive 33 years in the film industry and is hitting another kind of high.
“I’m seeing all the fan love and you guys never fail to make me feel so so grateful,” Berry told her Facebook followers in an August 24 post.
With a busy work schedule – she also stars in the horror film Never Let Go – and two children to raise (Nahla Ariela Aubry, 16, and Maceo-Robert Martinez, 10), what’s her secret?
“Happiness. It’s important to be happy, to look after yourself, to take care of your body and to eat well. It’s the lifestyle that helps,” Berry tells WHO, before elaborating on what attracted her to The Union.
“Having been in a Bond movie, I thought it would be really fun to play with that in kind of a spoof way,” she says. “I do all the stunts I’m allowed to do. Unless it’s something I really can’t do or it’s going to be a problem for insurance reasons, then I’ll do them. I like to do them. It’s something I learned to love again from my time on John Wick. That experience changed me forever.
“But I have always been athletic. I was a gymnast when I was a kid. I can do martial arts, I love boxing, so anything action is right up my street.”
It seems these physical tasks contribute to the all-important happiness the star spoke about.
“I love to challenge myself, even more so now I’m closer to 60 than I am 50,” she says.
The plot of The Union sees two highschool sweethearts link up for a high-stakes mission 30 years on.
Berry divulges that she has an old boyfriend with whom she “never lost contact”.
“We’re still close friends so it’s different,” she explains. “I feel grateful for the time we had together but I don’t have any regrets. It was fun at the time but I needed to move on and discover life beyond my own backyard.”
These days, Berry is in a relationship with musician Van Hunt, who she began dating in 2020. Her split from ex-husband Olivier Martinez, to whom she was married for two years, ending in 2016, remains far from amicable.
Having finalised their divorce last year, Berry is fighting for sole custody of their son, Maceo, claiming in court documents that Martinez “refuses to co-parent or communicate in a child-centred way”, People reports.
Having achieved so much already, Berry’s goals for the future seem quite simple.
“I hopefully get to keep working, to keep challenging myself and, most of all, that I stay healthy. I have two children who are still growing up,” she tells WHO. “I just want to keep doing what I have been doing and take care of myself, put myself first because it is really important I stick around for them.”
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