Halle Berry reveals the A-list actor she had in mind before steamy love scene in ‘Monster’s Ball’
Halle Berry took inspiration from Nicole Kidman when filming her iconic love scene in 'Monster’s Ball'. The scene was so bold that the director worried Berry might not agree to film it. However, Berry agreed, setting one condition. “I would only do it if Billy Bob agreed to be as naked as I was,” she told The New York Times.
Berry also shared how she found courage for the role after seeing Kidman in 'The Blue Room', a 1998 play where she performed naked on stage. “I remember when Nicole Kidman was naked on stage and I thought, ‘How could she?’ Eventually, when the opportunity presented itself to me, I just bit the bullet and did it,” Berry said, according to Irish Examiner. The actress admitted she might not have even taken on 'Monster’s Ball' without her earlier experience in 'Swordfish'. The 2001 hacker film was the first time Berry undressed on screen. “In 'Swordfish', it was totally gratuitous nudity, and I knew it. But I probably wouldn’t have been able to do the sex scene in 'Monster’s Ball' if I hadn’t shown my breasts in 'Swordfish',” she explained.
Berry’s co-star, Billy Bob Thornton, recalled that their famous love scene was a true collaboration. In an interview with Sway’s Universe, he shared that parts of the scene were improvised. “I might’ve been a little bit nervous beforehand, but once we got into it, it was essentially ad-libbed,” Thornton said. “I mean, there was some dialogue for that scene in the script, but we kind of just winged it. We had to hold each other’s hands through it a little bit.”
Thornton also addressed a rumor about the scene, clarifying that they were not actually intimate. However, he admitted that filming it felt very real. “It felt so real when we were doing it that [we felt] the heaviness surrounding the circumstances in the story,” he told HuffPost in 2014. “I think maybe that’s why it comes across so well on screen, because it was two desperate human beings in this moment alone, and we kind of were alone.”
However, not everyone in Berry’s circle thought 'Monster’s Ball' was a smart career move. Many were concerned about its low budget, risqué content, and racial themes. But those were the very reasons Berry wanted to do the movie. “People around me said, ‘Ooh, it’s a very low-budget movie. It’s very risqué. There are some sexual components to it that maybe you don’t want to do. The subject matter, it’s got a lot of racial components to it. I don’t know if you want to touch this.’ And those were all the reasons why I loved it,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Berry was so passionate about the project that she was willing to risk her career. “I thought, ...‘Well, I’m going to end my own career on my own volition. I’m going to end my career doing something that inspires me, that ignites me, that excites me.’" She emphasized that she loves taking risks as "if you don’t risk big, you can’t win big.”