Halle Berry Hopes 'Kidnap' Is Her 'Taken'

Karla Dyson, the waitress and mother of one played by Halle Berry in the new thriller Kidnap, doesn’t necessarily have one “very particular set of skills.” But when her young son, Frankie (Sage Correa), is abducted at a park, she — like Liam Neeson‘s neck-snapping CIA agent Bryan Mills in the hit Taken movies — goes on a furious quest to retrieve him, showing off some surprising fight moves in the process.

“I hope this is my Taken — I should be so lucky,” the 50-year-old Oscar winner told Yahoo Movies (watch above) when we asked her if this film marks the actress’s Liam Neeson moment.

“But for me, it’s a chance to show — I know dads save the day; that’s what dads do — but moms do too, and that’s what this is about,” Berry (Monster’s Ball, X-Men) continued. “It’s about showing the heart of a mother, the lioness inside every woman, the superhero inside every average mom. … She’s a minivan mom; she’s a soccer mom. But [if] you mess with her kid, she turns into all things Liam Neeson, in her own organic way.”

The subject matter understandably touched a nerve for Berry, who has a young daughter (Nahla, 9) and a son (Maceo, 3). “It was [difficult] at moments. Mainly just the moment of the snatching — that was hard,” Berry said. “But I also felt that it was empowering, because it highlights the heart of a parent; the heart of a mom. It highlighted that no matter what is happening, as parents, we can actually affect the outcome of something if we have the heart to do it.”

And Berry even has what could potentially be her own Neeson-esque catchphrase in the film: “You took the wrong kid!”

“That sums up the whole movie,” she said. “Those kidnappers took the wrong kid on this day, and [spoiler alert] they got what was coming.”

Kidnap opens Aug. 4.

Watch Halle Berry heap praise on Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot:


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