Halle Berry and Gina Prince-Bythewood are well aware that, as black filmmakers in Hollywood, they are part of a tight club or, as Prince-Bythewood put it, a “very little sisterhood.” The two women had a candid conversation about their different paths and approaches to filmmaking within the latest series of Vanity FairWhat Is Cinema?, which compares directors on their craft.
“My goal is to move people,” said Prince-Bythewood, director of Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights and recent success The Woman King, starring Viola Davis as the leader of an army of female warriors in West Africa. Of that film, Prince-Bythewood told Berry: “I’ve always wanted to make ours Brave heart», emphasizing how black women who direct and star in action films are «revolutionizing» the genre. “To be able to see ourselves as warriors, fighters, heroines, is so rare.”
Despite her decades of experience in front of the camera as an Oscar-winning actress, Berry said directing was not initially part of her plans. “I didn’t want to be a director, or rather, I think I always wanted to, but not now,” she said of her directorial debut with Bruised (Netflix). In addition to directing the film, Berry played Jackie Justice, a single mother and disgraced MMA fighter. “I had a tremendously difficult role to play: I had to direct myself and, I guarantee it, I’m not psychotic. No one would choose to do that,” Berry observed with a laugh. “In fact, he was the one who chose me, with a story that I felt was deeply mine.”
Prince-Bythewood confessed that he shares Berry’s need to connect viscerally with whatever material he chooses to direct. “It’s very simple. It is a connection that I would describe as visceral. And it has to be,” she explained. A lover of historical epics, Prince-Bythewood saw his career move in the direction of The Woman King even before the script came to her, with Academy Award winner Viola Davis already signed. “You can’t go wrong in these cases,” concluded Berry.
Source: Vanity Fair
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