Halle Berry Had to Plead With Spike Lee to Audition for Her Crack Addict Role in ‘Jungle Fever’

In a recent interview with W magazine, Halle Berry talked about having to overcome her looks to be taken seriously. Before she became an actress, Berry’s first foray into entertainment was as a beauty pageant contestant and model. It wasn’t until a teacher at Chicago’s famed Second City encouraged Berry to act that she gave it a shot.

However, despite her pedigree as a model, Berry intentionally veered away from roles of “beautiful woman.” And that’s how we get to her first film role, Vivian, in Spike Lee’s 1991 film, Jungle Fever.

Berry told W, “Spike Lee wanted me to read for the part of his wife and I read that part fine enough, but then I said to Spike, ‘You know I really am eyeing this crack ho role, can you please let me audition for that?’ And he said, ‘No, no I don’t see you as the crack ho.’ I said, ‘I am the crack ho. Really deep down I’m the crack ho!’ And he was like, ‘No, I don’t see it.’”

Undeterred, Berry persisted. “I said, ‘Let me go in the bathroom, wash all this makeup off; you will see eyeing the crack ho.’ So, he let me do that and I came back out and I got to read the crack ho, and I got the part of the crack ho.”

You might think with her performance in Jungle Fever that Berry would have been immediately considered for other roles of that ilk, but no. Later on she would again find herself pleading to be considered for a meaty role, this time with Lee Daniels for Monster’s Ball. You know how that ended: with an Academy Award for Best Actress.

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