Halle Berry dominates in first trailer for Netflix’s ‘Bruised’
The veteran actress cracked two ribs while shooting the film
Netflix has released the first trailer for Halle Berry’s MMA drama Bruised, which also marks her directorial debut.
The Oscar-winning actress stars in this tale of a washed-up MMA fighter on a path of redemption amid a bitter custody battle.
Here’s the synopsis:
“Jackie Justice (Halle Berry) is a mixed martial arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after her last fight, she’s coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi (Adan Canto) and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter (Shamier Anderson) who promises Jackie a life back in the octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal when Manny (Danny Boyd, Jr.) — the son she gave up as an infant — shows up at her doorstep. BRUISED marks the directorial debut of Academy Award winner Halle Berry and also stars Adriane Lenox, Sheila Atim, Valentina Shevchenko, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.”
According to Variety, Berry cracked two ribs while shooting the film. But she wasn’t going to let the pain of her injury derail her dream of directing, theGRIO previously reported.
“I didn’t want to stop because I had prepared for so long. We had rehearsed; we were ready. So my mind, my director’s mind, was just — keep going. And I compartmentalized that, and I just kept going: ‘I’m not going to stop. I’ve come too far. I’m going to act as if this isn’t hurting. I’m going to will myself through it.’ And so we did,” the actress said.
The script for Bruised came to Berry several years ago and was originally written for a 25-year-old Irish Catholic girl.
“I knew as written it could not be me, but what I loved about the story is it was classic fight film,” Berry said. “I loved the fractured brokenness of this character, and I love to see a film that’s about redemption. I want to see the human spirit soar, I want to see someone rise above obstacles and still be standing at the end of the day.”
“I knew as written it could not be me, but what I loved about the story is it was classic fight film,” Berry continued. “I loved the fractured brokenness of this character, and I love to see a film that’s about redemption. I want to see the human spirit soar, I want to see someone rise above obstacles and still be standing at the end of the day.”
Berry then set out to “convince the producers, who had the rights to the movie, [that they] should let me reimagine it for a middle-aged Black woman.”
The producers agreed.
After a conversation with her friend, producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Berry was motivated to not only star in Bruised but also step behind the camera for her directorial debut, theGRIO reported.
“I said to her, ‘No one understands what’s in my head, and she said, ‘Why don’t you do it?’” Berry recalled. “I slept on it overnight and I woke up thinking ‘Yes, I can.’ I knew I’d worked harder than I ever worked in my entire life on a character, and the last thing I wanted was for all of that work to be for naught and mistakenly fall into the hands of a visionary who didn’t see it quite the way I saw it.”
Written by Michelle Rosenfarb, the film also stars Adriane Lenox, Sheila Atim, Valentina Shevchenko, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. Bruised is produced by Basil Iwanyk (John Wick, Sicario), Brad Feinstein, Guymon Casady, Linda Gottlieb, Erica Lee, Gillian G. Hormel, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, and Terry Douglas, THR reports.
Bruised hits theaters on Nov. 17 before debuting on Netflix on Nov. 24.
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The post Halle Berry dominates in first trailer for Netflix’s ‘Bruised’ appeared first on TheGrio.
