There are normal flops and there are really bad flops. Hardly anyone says a kind word about Halle Berry’s worst failure today. Only she herself has taken something positive from it.
If any film has earned the title “flop of the century”, it’s probably Catwoman. The 2004 DC blockbuster has been synonymous with creative and commercial miscalculations since its cursed release. Halle Berry didn’t have it easy as the leading actress and figurehead. But she learned her lessons from Catwoman.
Halle Berry’s hefty verdict on Catwoman
Halle Berry herself collected the Worst Actress award at the controversial anti-Oscars, the Golden Raspberry. She gave a now legendary acceptance speech that was full of self-mockery and harsh on the film. Berry said she wanted to thank the Warner Bros. studio. “Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, in a heinous movie. It was exactly what my career needed.”
Whether Berry meant that last sentence at the time, we don’t know. But years later, she returned to that thought.
What Halle Berry learned from Catwoman
2018, almost a decade and a half after Catwoman, Halle Berry looked back on the failure and drew an interesting conclusion. Every person close to her warned her about the film, she says. “Girl, don’t do this, it will be the death of you, it will end your career.” But Berry just didn’t listen to these people, she made her own decision.