Halle Berry Says She Is ‘Always Getting Injured’ on Set: ‘I Love Pushing Myself to Those Limits’

• Halle Berry does most of her own stunts in movies like Bruised and John Wick: Chapter 3—and yes, she does get hurt in the process.

• The 55-year-old discusses the physical toll doing her own stunts takes on her body.
  

• “I’m always getting injured,” the Bruised director and star said last week. “I don’t like getting hurt. But I love pushing myself to those limits and then pushing myself through those limits.”

Halle Berry is one of Hollywood’s most fearless action stars—on and off the screen. Unlike so many actors, the 55-year-old does most of her own stunts. But despite her dedication to everything from Catwoman to John Wick, Berry admits that her boundary-pushing feats do take a physical toll.

“Here’s the truth,” Berry told the Irish Times in a recent interview. “I’m always getting injured. Little injuries.” Most recently, she experienced scores of them on the set of her directorial debut, Bruised, in which she stars as a disgraced MMA fighter.

“Even in my training, I broke a couple of toes before I even met Valentina [Shevchenko, her Bruised costar and current UFC flyweight world champion],” Berry continued. “Damn. My finger got out the socket, and my trainer had to jam it back in place, so there are things that happen in training.”

But that’s not all: When she started on Bruised, Berry was healing from two broken ribs she sustained during John Wick: Chapter 3—Parabellum. “We had to really crank up her training” to prep for John Wick, her longtime personal trainer Peter Lee Thomas told USA Today in 2019. Berry hit the gym like an MMA fighter, going for “anywhere from 500 to 1,000 jump-rope skips” at a time, Thomas said.

But the mother of two, who seems like she’s always hitting the gym, wouldn’t have it any other way. (She even said so after her first major Bruised injury.) “Usually, what happens is that stunt people come in, and they always get injured, but we don’t ever hear about it because they’re supposed to get injured. That’s their job,” she continued in the Irish Times. “When actors do their own stunts, we hear all about it. It’s perceived that it’s somehow surprising. Oh, they got hurt. Well, of course you get hurt!”

“So yeah, I did get hurt. But that’s part of it,” said Berry, who practices Muay Thai, capoeira, and jiu-jitsu. “I don’t like getting hurt. But I love pushing myself to those limits and then pushing myself through those limits. In those moments you come face to face with it, and you learn about who you are.”

The actress also opened up about the harsh reality of being a woman of color in Hollywood. She revealed that despite her 2002 best-actress Oscar win for Monster’s Ball, she still found herself fighting for roles.

“I was very disheartened after winning that gorgeous guy,” Berry recalled. “I was sure the script truck would just back itself up to my front door. That’s what I thought would happen. Like, ‘Now I’m going to get all the great parts.’ But unfortunately for me, that was not my reality. I’ve been continuing to try to make ways for myself. Because it’s hard. I don’t often find great parts that I really, really love to sink my teeth into.”

But with Bruised, Berry is entering a new chapter of her career—and looking for her next challenge. “I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. I’m not going to sit around bashing things,” she said. “I’m here to work. I have more hills to climb as long as I’m here. I’ve got more things to learn. I’ve got more challenges to face. I can continue to get better.”

And we’re certain she will.

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