Bringing back actors who were in previous superhero movies is all the rage now. Michael Keaton’s coming back as Batman for The Flash solo outing. A number of the old Spider-Man-verse guard are back for the third Tom Holland one. So what about Halle Berry? Will she be coming back as Catwoman, the role she played in the titular 2004 film? Oh, almost certainly not.
Variety caught up with the Oscar-winning actress, who took on the role (not Selina Kyle, but a new character named — and this is real — Patience Phillips) shortly after becoming the first Black woman to win the Best Actress trophy for Monster’s Ball. They asked her if she’d seen the new trailer for The Batman. She hadn’t. And she had a good excuse: She’s too busy on post-production for her new action movie, Bruised, which is also her directorial debut.
Berry was then asked if she was game for returning to Catwoman. “Probably not,” she said, with a laugh. “I think I’m good.”
You might not remember 2004’s Catwoman. In some ways, it’s a game-changer. It’s the first comic book movie with a Black female superhero. And it’s one of the first with a female superhero. (Though the first came 20 whole years earlier: Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, starring Tanya Roberts, which beat the Helen Slater Supergirl to theaters by three whole months.) It was also a critical and commercial catastrophe, making Berry a one-and-done version of Batman’s favorite frenemy. (Then again, so were Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway.)
This isn’t the only time Berry’s been asked about the movie recently. Back in August, she talked about not being all that enthused for the project from the start. “It’s like, okay, that’s a film I can’t say I’m totally in love with, but this isn’t a hobby. It’s how I take care of my children,” she admitted. But she didn’t exactly regret it. “It was one of the biggest paydays of my whole life, which, there’s nothing wrong with that.” She added, “I don’t want to feel like ‘Oh, I can only do award-worthy stuff.’ What is an award-worthy performance?”
Anyway, good for her, if you have a chance to take the money, take it and run. And never look back, even if someone asks you to.
(Via Variety)