Halle Berry Talks Most Haunting ‘Never Let Go’ Scene and Potential ‘John Wick’ Spinoff: “We Need To Do It Sooner Than Later”
[This story does not contain major spoilers for Never Let Go.]
When Oscar winner Halle Berry received the script for Never Let Go, she immediately likened it to the time she read the then-unproduced screenplay for A Quiet Place. The latter involves a farm-based family that lives in total silence following the invasion of bloodthirsty alien monsters with hypersensitive hearing, and Berry and director Alexandre Aja’s survival horror-thriller is about a single mother and her two fraternal twin sons who can’t leave their rural Tennessee cabin without being tethered by a limited amount of evil-obstructing rope. Berry was so taken by this high concept that she insisted on producing the pic alongside her production partner (and former agent) Holly Jeter at HalleHolly.
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The aforementioned rope, which is regarded as a “lifeline,” is meant to protect Berry’s “Momma” and her 10-year-old 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 starts to question whether his mother has lost her grip on reality, creating a divided household since Samuel routinely sides with Momma. Thus, Berry knew that the key to Never Let Go’s success was finding two young actors who could carry stretches of the movie themselves.
“I knew how important it was to find the right two boys at the right age who could handle that. So all of that was very tricky, and that was the producer part of me just wanting to tell a good story,” Berry tells The Hollywood Reporter.
One of Never Let Go‘s most emotional (and unpredictable) scenes centers on the family dog, Koda, and considering she’s perpetually an owner of two dogs and worked closely with a total of five Belgian Malinois dogs on John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019), Berry, along with her two young co-stars and dog-toting director, kept delaying the highly complex scene.
“It was almost the second-to-last day of shooting because nobody wanted to face doing that scene. We all knew how hard it would be, and when Alex would bring it up, we just kept saying, ‘No, we’re not ready,’” Berry says. “That was a hard thing for the boys to wrap their brains around, and as for my character, it was a hard thing to have to try to bring some truth to. So that was a really hard day when we had to actually finally do it.”
In John Wick: Chapter 3, Keanu Reeves’ prolific assassin received 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 governing body known as The High Table, Sofia’s repayment to John created a new threat to her daughter’s life. Admittedly, Berry hoped that John Wick: Chapter 4 would resume this storyline, but with a franchise that’s still expanding across the big and small screen, she’s still relatively optimistic that it’ll be explored in a spinoff of some kind.
“Yeah, I wish 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 cool storyline. We talked about it, that’s for sure,” Berry shares. “We seeded it in John Wick: Chapter 3, and we’ve talked about a spinoff with Lionsgate that could potentially happen. We need to do it sooner than later, but that could potentially happen. And I love that universe. I love John Wick and I loved that character, so you never know. We’ll see.”
As evidenced by Never Let Go and John Wick, Berry often plays a wide variety of roles across all genres, and while she has an Oscar on her mantle, she’s quite candid about still having to go through the door that opens.
“As a Black woman, I have never had the luxury of just doing Oscar-worthy performances and movies. I don’t even know what that is. My options at times are so limited, and that’s the reality of it,” Berry admits. “So I don’t have the luxury to just sit and field Oscar buzz movies. That wasn’t my reality, and it’s still not my reality.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Berry also dives into the many different interpretations of Never Let Go.
A single mother and her two fraternal twin sons cannot leave their remote cabin unless they’re tethered by rope, which represents life in this case. How did you react when this unconventional premise for Never Let Go first came your way?
I was wildly intrigued by it. When I read it, it was kind of like the first time I read A Quiet Place. I actually 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 like for a mother who’s raising two kids and never leaving this house in a forest.” It just captured my imagination. I read it with question after question after question, and after I got done reading, I thought, “I have to do this. I have to find a way to bring this to the screen.”
You’ve helped create a wonderful spotlight for two young performers, Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins, throughout the film, and I would wager that this was the producer side of you putting story first.
Yes.
Was that all part of the appeal for you?
Yes, that was. At some point, these two young performers had to go off to the races with it, and I knew how important it was to find the right two boys at the right age who could handle that. They also had to look like [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 just wanting to tell a good story. The actor part of me, of course, wanted to play this character. She’s a different version of a mother than I’ve ever played. I love the darkness and the complexity. But it was very much about putting these kids forward and putting the story forward and really making the best version of it that we possibly could.
Never Let Go is one of those movies that’s going to have a wide variety of interpretations. I’ve changed my mind many times already. What thematic chord struck you most?
It’s the idea of generational trauma and all the metaphors around that in the movie. As a mother, I call it “spills and pours.” We pour some great things into our kids, but then we spill a lot of crap. Sometimes, that crap is our own fears, our own neuroses, our own limitations, our own beliefs. Sometimes, that can lock our children up, and so that interested me most. Being a mother, I know I’m spilling some shit into my kids because it’s inevitable. We all do. But I’ve been thoughtful about it, and I’ve tried to have more pours than spills, so I loved diving into that subject with this movie.
I explained the premise to an actor recently, and then she asked me if it was set in space. I laughed at first, but then I realized that the question wasn’t too far-fetched. This family is confined to a small space where they have to ration food, and if they want to venture outside, they have to be tethered like astronauts or else they’ll die. Has anyone brought up the space metaphor to you yet?
Not outer space, but they have brought up that the movie feels like an alternate universe. They didn’t say necessarily where, but they thought that it wasn’t real, like the Matrix. It wasn’t actually happening. There wouldn’t be a sequel, but if there were, they thought that we would discover that none of it is real.
I know I’m exhausting the space metaphor, but when Momma tells Nolan that he’ll grow into his oversized boots, they almost have the clunky look of astronaut boots.
But that’s the beauty of the movie to me. People can take away what they need to take away from it. It’s based on who they are, how they grew up and what their eyes and heart see. It can mean whatever it needs to mean depending on the viewer, which is the fun part.
Whether it’s Never Let Go or any other recent acting job, have you found yourself to be more cognizant of the directorial side of things now that you’ve been in the chair yourself?
Oh my God, yes. Once you’ve done that, it’s very hard to look at things not from that seat, but it’s been really wonderful, actually. Having directed my own film [Bruised], I really understand much more deeply. After 30 years of making movies, I thought I knew all the intricacies of making a movie, but I didn’t until I directed one and had to make every decision, both big and small, and had to worry about budget and shooting schedules. It’s only having gone through that process that I can now sit on movie sets and talk to directors in a different way. They’ll tell 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 think, “Well, why are they doing that? That makes no sense. It would be so much better for me if we shot this all this way.” But now, I just have a better working understanding of why those things have to happen. I’m much more agreeable and amenable to whatever is asked of me now. It’s not that I wasn’t before, but silently, I might have said, “Well, this is dumb. I don’t know why we’re doing it this way, but whatever.” So I now understand why we do things the way we do things.
You’ve gone to all sorts of great lengths to prepare 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 just because I’ve been stressed, but this is not the first time I’ve had to bite my nails. It was just one of the things 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 distressed face makeup put on. We were supposed to be starving, so we did all those kinds of things. But I have to say that the boys and I loved it. We loved getting into all that every morning.
I asked Alex Aja about the identity of the blonde woman in a Polaroid photo, and I said, “It certainly didn’t look like Halle Berry.” And then he had a big laugh since it was you.
(Laughs.) Yes! We did our job then.
One of Momma’s sons asked, “Is that really you?” So I take comfort in that.
Yeah, the old world’s Momma was something different. She was something different.
When some people win an Oscar, they’ll often stick to that kind of fare for the rest of their career, but I love how you didn’t just stay in that lane. You jump genres with the best of them. Was that a purposeful strategy? Or was there no overarching plan?
Well, here’s the truth of it. As a Black woman, I have never had the luxury of just doing Oscar-worthy performances and movies. I don’t even know what that is. My options at times are so limited, and that’s the reality of it. I won that Oscar 23 years ago now, and it was about working. It was about loving the craft. It was about growing and taking risks and chances. So I don’t have the luxury to just sit and field Oscar buzz movies. That wasn’t my reality, and it’s still not my reality.
A recent character of yours named Sofia had a very close and protective relationship with her two dogs. So when you arrived at Never Let Go’s unpredictable 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 lovers, and Alex, our director, walked around with his little tiny dog inside of his coat every day. So we were all animal lovers, 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 knew how hard it would be, and when Alex would bring it up, we just kept saying, “No, we’re not ready.” We just didn’t want to face it. That was a hard thing for the boys to wrap their brains around, and as for my character, it was a hard thing to have to try to bring some truth to. So that was a really hard day when we had to actually finally do it.
When I walked out of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, I assumed that the fourth movie was going to be John and Sofia racing to protect her daughter. As she indicated in the movie, one mistake, such as helping John, would put her daughter in danger with the High Table. Did you ever let yourself think that far ahead in terms of where things could go?
Yeah, I wish that would’ve happened, but that’s not the route they went. I thought that would’ve been a cool storyline. We talked about it, that’s for sure. We seeded it in John Wick: Chapter 3, and we’ve talked about a spinoff with Lionsgate that could potentially happen. We need to do it sooner than later, but that could potentially happen. And I love that universe. I love John Wick and I loved that character, so you never know. We’ll see.
Yeah, with the franchise expanding, it’s a story point that could still be pursued someday. So it sounds like if Chad Stahelski were to pitch you a spinoff movie or limited series, you’d be all ears.
In a heartbeat. I loved that character, and I love 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 said 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 believe it or not, Catwoman and B*A*P*S. All of them could not be more different, but those are the ones that always come up.
Lastly, Tom Hanks said a few years ago that Cloud Atlas was one of his top three filming experiences, partially because it was such a big swing. Do you also recognize why he’d say that?
Oh yeah. I know how amazing that experience was for all of us, and it was a big swing. We got to play all those different great characters, and what the movie had to say was a huge thought. So all of us felt responsible 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 playing in movie theaters.
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