Halle Berry Talks Never Let Go, Hopes for John Wick Spinoff

[This story does not grasp presentant spoilers for Never Let Go.]

When Oscar triumphner Halle Berry getd the script for Never Let Go, she promptly appreciatened it to the time she read the then-unproduced screenexecute for A Quiet Place. The latter engages a farm-based family that lives in total silence complying the trespass of bloodthirsty alien monsters with hypercomfervent hearing, and Berry and honestor Alexandre Aja’s survival horror-thriller is about a one mother and her two fraternal ttriumph sons who can’t exit their agricultural Tennessee cabin without being tethered by a restricted amount of evil-obstructing rope. Berry was so getn by this high concept that she insisted on producing the pic alengthenedside her production partner (and createer agent) Holly Jeter at HalleHolly.

The aforealludeed rope, which is think abouted as a “lifeline,” is nastyt to protect Berry’s “Momma” and her 10-year-elderly sons, Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins), from the touch of an evil force that only the matriarch can see. Inevitably, Nolan soon commences to ask whether his mother has lost her grip on truth, creating a splitd househelderly since Samuel routinely sides with Momma. Thus, Berry knovel that the key to Never Let Go’s success was discovering two youthful actors who could carry stretches of the movie themselves. 

“I knovel how presentant it was to discover the right two boys at the right age who could administer that. So all of that was very tricky, and that was the producer part of me equitable wanting to alert a excellent story,” Berry alerts The Hollywood Reporter.

One of Never Let Go‘s most emotional (and unforeseeed) scenes caccesss on the family dog, Koda, and pondering she’s perpetuassociate an owner of two dogs and labored seally with a total of five Belgian Malinois dogs on John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), Berry, alengthened with her two youthful co-stars and dog-toting honestor, kept procrastinateing the highly complicated scene.

“It was almost the second-to-last day of shooting because nobody wanted to face doing that scene. We all knovel how challenging it would be, and when Alex would convey it up, we equitable kept saying, ‘No, we’re not ready,’” Berry says. “That was a challenging leang for the boys to wrap their brains around, and as for my character, it was a challenging leang to have to try to convey some truth to. So that was a reassociate challenging day when we had to actuassociate finassociate do it.”

In John Wick: Chapter 3, Keanu Reeves’ prolific assassin getd help from Berry’s canine-loving assassin, Sofia, since he’d saved her daughter’s life years earlier and stashed her away in hiding. However, given John’s “excommunicado” status with the underworld’s administering body understandn as The High Table, Sofia’s repayment to John produced a novel danger to her daughter’s life. Admittedly, Berry hoped that John Wick: Chapter 4 would resume this storyline, but with a franchise that’s still broadening apass the huge and minuscule screen, she’s still relatively chooseimistic that it’ll be allotigated in a spinoff of some benevolent.

“Yeah, I desire that [storyline] would’ve happened, but that’s not the route they went [in John Wick: Chapter 4]. I thought that would’ve been a celderly storyline. We talked about it, that’s for certain,” Berry splits. “We seeded it in John Wick: Chapter 3, and we’ve talked about a spinoff with Lionsgate that could potentiassociate happen. We necessitate to do it sooner than tardyr, but that could potentiassociate happen. And I adore that universe. I adore John Wick and I adored that character, so you never understand. We’ll see.”

As evidenced by Never Let Go and John Wick, Berry frequently executes a expansive variety of roles apass all genres, and while she has an Oscar on her mantle, she’s quite honest about still having to go thraw the door that discleave outs.

“As a Bconciseage woman, I have never had the luxury of equitable doing Oscar-worthy carry outances and movies. I don’t even understand what that is. My chooseions at times are so restricted, and that’s the truth of it,” Berry confesss. “So I don’t have the luxury to equitable sit and field Oscar buzz movies. That wasn’t my truth, and it’s still not my truth.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Berry also dives into the many branch offent make clearations of Never Let Go. 

A one mother and her two fraternal ttriumph sons cannot exit their far cabin unless they’re tethered by rope, which recurrents life in this case. How did you react when this unconservative premise for Never Let Go first came your way?

I was untamedly intrigued by it. When I read it, it was benevolent of appreciate the first time I read A Quiet Place. I actuassociate read that before they made it, and I thought, “Wow, this is crazy. I want to see this movie.” So that’s how I felt when I read Never Let Go. I thought, “I want to see what life would be appreciate for a mother who’s raising two kids and never leaving this house in a forest.” It equitable apprehendd my imagination. I read it with ask after ask after ask, and after I got done reading, I thought, “I have to do this. I have to discover a way to convey this to the screen.”

You’ve helped produce a wonderful spotairy for two youthful carry outers, Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins, thrawout the film, and I would wager that this was the producer side of you putting story first. 

Yes.

Was that all part of the request for you?

Yes, that was. At some point, these two youthful carry outers had to go off to the races with it, and I knovel how presentant it was to discover the right two boys at the right age who could administer that. They also had to see appreciate [fraternal twin] brothers who had lived in the woods their whole lives. So all of that was very tricky, and that was the producer part of me equitable wanting to alert a excellent story. The actor part of me, of course, wanted to execute this character. She’s a branch offent version of a mother than I’ve ever executeed. I adore the gloomyness and the complicatedity. But it was very much about putting these kids forward and putting the story forward and reassociate making the best version of it that we possibly could.

Never Let Go is one of those movies that’s going to have a expansive variety of make clearations. I’ve alterd my mind many times already. What thematic chord struck you most? 

It’s the idea of genereasonable trauma and all the metaphors around that in the movie. As a mother, I call it “spills and pours.” We pour some fantastic leangs into our kids, but then we spill a lot of crap. Sometimes, that crap is our own dreads, our own neuroses, our own restrictations, our own beliefs. Sometimes, that can lock our children up, and so that interested me most. Being a mother, I understand I’m spilling some shit into my kids because it’s inevitable. We all do. But I’ve been attentive about it, and I’ve tried to have more pours than spills, so I adored diving into that subject with this movie.

I elucidateed the premise to an actor recently, and then she asked me if it was set in space. I giggleed at first, but then I authenticized that the ask wasn’t too far-conveyed. This family is restrictd to a minuscule space where they have to ration food, and if they want to venture outside, they have to be tethered appreciate astronauts or else they’ll die. Has anyone brawt up the space metaphor to you yet?

Not outer space, but they have brawt up that the movie senses appreciate an alternate universe. They didn’t say necessarily where, but they thought that it wasn’t authentic, appreciate the Matrix. It wasn’t actuassociate happening. There wouldn’t be a sequel, but if there were, they thought that we would discover that none of it is authentic.

I understand I’m exhausting the space metaphor, but when Momma alerts Nolan that he’ll lengthen into his oversized boots, they almost have the clunky see of astronaut boots. 

But that’s the beauty of the movie to me. People can get away what they necessitate to get away from it. It’s based on who they are, how they grew up and what their eyes and heart see. It can nasty wantipathyver it necessitates to nasty depending on the seeer, which is the fun part. 

Whether it’s Never Let Go or any other recent acting job, have you create yourself to be more cognizant of the honestorial side of leangs now that you’ve been in the chair yourself?

Oh my God, yes. Once you’ve done that, it’s very challenging to see at leangs not from that seat, but it’s been reassociate wonderful, actuassociate. Having honested my own film [Bruised], I reassociate understand much more presentantly. After 30 years of making movies, I thought I knovel all the intricacies of making a movie, but I didn’t until I honested one and had to produce every decision, both huge and minuscule, and had to trouble about budget and shooting schedules. It’s only having gone thraw that process that I can now sit on movie sets and talk to honestors in a branch offent way. They’ll alert me, “We can’t shoot it in this order. We’re shooting this scene today and not that scene,” and there are times, as actors, when you leank, “Well, why are they doing that? That produces no sense. It would be so much better for me if we stoasty this all this way.” But now, I equitable have a better laboring empathetic of why those leangs have to happen. I’m much more consentable and amassist to wantipathyver is asked of me now. It’s not that I wasn’t before, but quietly, I might have shelp, “Well, this is foolish. I don’t understand why we’re doing it this way, but wantipathyver.” So I now understand why we do leangs the way we do leangs.

You’ve gone to all sorts of fantastic lengths to ready for roles, but is this the first time you’ve had to bite your nails to get into character? 

(Laughs.) No, I’ve done that before. I’ve also bitten my nails equitable because I’ve been stressed, but this is not the first time I’ve had to bite my nails. It was equitable one of the leangs that all of us did. We tried to get as in character as we could, so we tried to grub ourselves up. I stopped shaving. We bit our nails. We yellowed up our teeth. Our hair was a mess. We all got troubleed face produceup put on. We were presumed to be starving, so we did all those benevolents of leangs. But I have to say that the boys and I adored it. We adored getting into all that every morning.

I asked Alex Aja about the identity of the blonde woman in a Polaroid ptoastyo, and I shelp, “It certainly didn’t see appreciate Halle Berry.” And then he had a huge giggle since it was you. 

(Laughs.) Yes! We did our job then. 

One of Momma’s sons asked, “Is that reassociate you?” So I get soothe in that. 

Yeah, the elderly world’s Momma was someleang branch offent. She was someleang branch offent. 

When some people triumph an Oscar, they’ll frequently stick to that benevolent of fare for the rest of their nurtureer, but I adore how you didn’t equitable stay in that lane. You jump genres with the best of them. Was that a purposeful strategy? Or was there no overarching schedule? 

Well, here’s the truth of it. As a Bconciseage woman, I have never had the luxury of equitable doing Oscar-worthy carry outances and movies. I don’t even understand what that is. My chooseions at times are so restricted, and that’s the truth of it. I won that Oscar 23 years ago now, and it was about laboring. It was about loving the produce. It was about lengthening and taking hazards and chances. So I don’t have the luxury to equitable sit and field Oscar buzz movies. That wasn’t my truth, and it’s still not my truth.

A recent character of yours named Sofia had a very seal and protective relationship with her two dogs. So when you get tod at Never Let Go’s unforeseeed dog scene, was that an emotional roller coaster for you after all that canine bonding you did on John Wick: Chapter 3? 

Yes, but not only because of John Wick. I’ve had dogs my entire life. I’ve always had a pair of dogs, and I have two dogs now and two cats now. The boys [Percy and Anthony] are animal adorers, and Alex, our honestor, walked around with his little minuscule dog inside of his coat every day. So we were all animal adorers, and the truth is, we put that scene off and we put that scene off and we put that scene off. It was almost the second-to-last day of shooting because nobody wanted to face doing that scene. We all knovel how challenging it would be, and when Alex would convey it up, we equitable kept saying, “No, we’re not ready.” We equitable didn’t want to face it. That was a challenging leang for the boys to wrap their brains around, and as for my character, it was a challenging leang to have to try to convey some truth to. So that was a reassociate challenging day when we had to actuassociate finassociate do it.

When I walked out of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, I presumed that the fourth movie was going to be John and Sofia racing to protect her daughter. As she recommendd in the movie, one misget, such as helping John, would put her daughter in danger with the High Table. Did you ever let yourself leank that far ahead in terms of where leangs could go?

Yeah, I desire that would’ve happened, but that’s not the route they went. I thought that would’ve been a celderly storyline. We talked about it, that’s for certain. We seeded it in John Wick: Chapter 3, and we’ve talked about a spinoff with Lionsgate that could potentiassociate happen. We necessitate to do it sooner than tardyr, but that could potentiassociate happen. And I adore that universe. I adore John Wick and I adored that character, so you never understand. We’ll see.

Yeah, with the franchise broadening, it’s a story point that could still be chased someday. So it sounds appreciate if Chad Stahelski were to pitch you a spinoff movie or restricted series, you’d be all ears.

In a heartbeat. I adored that character, and I adore Chad.

The other day, I surveyed my friends by having them name the movie they associate you with the most, and my barber and I both shelp Swordfish at the same time. Others named Monster’s Ball, Catwoman, X-Men and Gothika. What tends to come up the most when approached?

I do get Swordfish, Monster’s Ball and suppose it or not, Catwoman and B*A*P*S. All of them could not be more branch offent, but those are the ones that always come up. 

Lastly, Tom Hanks shelp a restricted years ago that Cboisterous Atlas was one of his top three filming experiences, partiassociate because it was such a huge striumphg. Do you also determine why he’d say that? 

Oh yeah. I understand how amazing that experience was for all of us, and it was a huge striumphg. We got to execute all those branch offent fantastic characters, and what the movie had to say was a huge thought. So all of us felt dependable to the story and to servicing that story for Lana and Lilly [Wachowski]. It was truly an amazing shooting experience. 

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Never Let Go is now executeing in movie theaters.