Halle Berry and Angelina Jolie 'Bonded' Over 'Divorces and Exes' After Their Friendship Had a 'Rocky Start'

Halle Berry and Angelina Jolie may be making a movie together, but the Monster’s Ball alum shared that her relationship with the Girl, Interrupted star was not always great.

While talking about their upcoming film, Maude v Maude — which she described as a combination of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Mission: Impossible — Berry said she was excited to “physically and intellectually” battle Jolie.

“We had a rocky start and I think that is going to serve us well in our screen time together,” she added of the mother-of-six, noting she was “thrilled to work with another woman and craft a story with our sensibility and from our point of view. She is formidable.”

When asked about why the duo did not get along from the jump, Berry said fans will have to wait to hear the story, however, it’s a “good one.”

Despite the initial tensions between the two Oscar winners, the action star spilled about how they turned their relationship around.

“We’ve been talking a lot about divorces and exes. We bonded, let’s say that,” Berry, who filed for divorce from former husband Olivier Martinez in 2015, said of Jolie, who split from ex Brad Pitt in 2016.

During the interview, Berry also revealed her trip to the Middle Eastern festival was also to scope out filming locations for her and Jolie’s movie. The mother-of-two explained how she visited Al-Balad that day.

“We plan on going all around the world. Warner Bros. bought our screenplay and, for us, it is about going places that have never been shown on screen before,” she stated.

Prior to becoming an executive producer on the project with Jolie, Berry directed her first film in 2020 titled Bruised.

When asked about the process of creating the movie she described the experience as “hell.”

“Because I was a woman, and a Black woman, the treatment I received and the things I had to put up with were unconscionable,” she noted. “If I were a white man or even a Black man, it would have been easier. It’s amazing I even made it and a miracle Netflix bought it.”

Berry spoke further on the injustice of the entertainment industry by referencing her 2002 Oscar win for Monster’s Ball, which marked the first black woman to win in the Best Actress category.

“It’s been 21 years now and no one else like me has walked through that door. That is a great sadness because I felt that night meant something,” she said, pointing out that black women have only secured wins in the Supporting Actress category since.

“Awards aren’t everything. We are working in the industry in a way we never worked, so there has been change and it did matter,” she noted.

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Berry also mentioned how, despite her immense success in the early '00s, for much of her career she was not able to pick and choose her next project.

“It didn’t do for me what it did for others, which goes back to being a Black woman,” she said. “But my production company did move the needle. I get to do what I want, turn ideas into screenplays and decide the producers I work with."

Berry spoke with Variety about her film with Jolie.