Halle Berry Was Afraid To Star In ‘Never Let Go’

Halle Berry almost couldn’t shake her fears for her latest turn on the big screen.

“When I started this movie, I was afraid,” the Oscar winner, 58, admits about joining Alexandre Aja’s horror-thriller “Never Let Go,” which hit theaters on Sept. 20. “I was afraid to do this, but that also let me know that I had to do it.”

Berry and I are near the end of our morning phone call on the day of her film’s release when the topic of facing fear comes up. That’s only natural, because it sits precisely at the center of her new movie.

In the supernatural flick — which Berry also executive produced — she plays Momma, an overprotective single mother who has to put fear aside to shield her fraternal twin sons (played by Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV) from an unspeakable evil that’s taken over a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. Momma’s parents first passed down the spirit’s haunting, and in turn, her boys have inherited the same curse. For the past 10 years, the family of three has been locked away in a cabin in the woods far from civilization, where their only lifelines are a network of ropes binding them to their home. Their vow is to never let go of them, hoping not to be infected by “the Evil.” However, one son’s doubts sever that bond, literally and figuratively, unleashing the demon’s wicked wrath.

“Never Let Go” has the kind of plot that immediately captivated Berry. It’s a tale about motherhood, survival, resilience and confronting deep-seated generational trauma. Despite her slight reservations about the fact that her co-stars would be “two little kids,” Berry says she was thoroughly intrigued by Aja’s concept.

“When I read the screenplay, it was something very different,” she recalls. “I had the same feeling when I read the ‘Quiet Place’ [screenplay] before the movie was made. It was a world that I had never seen before. It captured my imagination.”

“I immediately connected to the through line, which, for me, was this idea of generational trauma and how as a mother, as a parent, we will pour some things into our children, but we also have the ability to spill things into [them],” she says. “And if we don’t heal our own wounds and traumas, how we are destined to pass these on to our children.”

That part of the story was relatable to Berry, as someone who “spent most of my adult life working through my trauma.” She found it fitting to explore that subject again on screen. “Nobody escapes their childhood unscathed,” Berry says, “so I’ve been working through mine, and that was a draw to tell this story.”

The complex storyline at the center of “Never Let Go,” where a child’s questions about his mother’s sanity lead to life-threatening consequences, was equally enticing for Berry, because she’d “never seen a Black family in this situation either.”

But diving deeper into the film’s material, Berry found even more parallels between herself and her character, some more obvious than others — like being a mother of two herself, which she says heavily informed her performance.

“Being a mother is a big part of who I am today,” Berry explains. “Once you have children, you’re never the person you were before, so I carry my sense of motherhood in every character that I play — actually, whether it’s a part of the character or not, that’s part of my sensibility.”

“Usually, the mothers that I’ve played, they’re strong mothers fighting for their children,” she continues. “Well, this mother was also fighting for her own sanity at the same time she was fighting to save her children. And so that lent to her being a bit darker, more complicated.”

Berry has experienced a similar fight in raising her 16-year-old daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry, and her 10-year-old son, Maceo-Robert Martinez, away from the limelight as much as she can. The struggles of fame have been a hindrance at times, but Berry, like Momma, tries to protect her kids by any means necessary.

“I’ve fought for my children a lot, whether it be fighting for my children to change the law, to change the paparazzi-stalking that my daughter had to go through when she was very young, their rights with their dads, things that I believed were important for them that I have to fight for or fight against,” Berry says. “So I know what it’s like to fight for my children, and I don’t hesitate, nor will I ever.”

Berry also knows what it’s like to fight for herself when no one else will. The dysfunction of Momma having to stand up for her beliefs against her own children echoes a feeling the actor knows all too well as a Black woman in Hollywood, a space where she’s constantly had to fight to be heard.

“Oh my God, yes. That’s the story of my life,” Berry remarks when asked about her character’s connection to her industry’s reality. “As a Black woman, we sit at the bottom of society, and we have historically had to fight to be heard, seen, appreciated and valued. Honestly, that’s a part of every role I play, because what I bring to every role is my Blackness, my ethnicity. There’s no way for me not to … That’s innate to who I am. There’s just no way around it for me.”

At the same time, unconventional movies like “Never Let Go” sometimes allow Berry to step outside that world. She mentions past films like “Monster’s Ball,” “Losing Isaiah,” “Gothika” and “Jungle Fever,” which were, in a way, freeing experiences both physically and mentally.

“Every time, especially when I do play a character like this, where I get to disappear into the role, I get to have some cathartic experiences,” Berry says. “I certainly did with this one. You get to work on some of your own stuff and funnel it through a character, and I love that. I loved going to work every day, yellowing up those teeth, putting on all that makeup to look distressed, and really play the part and not shave and just get gnarly with it. I love that, and so did the boys.”

Berry credits her young castmates with carrying the weight of “Never Let Go” alongside her. She says she was pleasantly surprised by Anthony and Percy’s professionalism and preparedness on their Vancouver set, calling them “gifted little performers.”

“You don’t really find kids that young that can do the things that they did,” Berry says. “Their emotional depth and range is deeper than some adults I’ve worked with, and so that’s impressive. I think that’s a tribute to their parents. They’re growing, the environment in which they’ve been nurtured in, they’re free to express that vulnerability. And that’s a good thing, especially in little Black boys.”

“These boys were true professionals, and they wanted to do this,” she continues. “They never complained. They showed up and did everything that was asked of them. And they were just good humans in this process. I was wildly impressed by them.”

Berry says she learned a lot from working with Anthony and Percy. At no point did she feel the need to give them sage advice or professional guidance as an industry veteran. Instead, even amid the seriousness of their movie, the young actors reminded her what it means to hold on to her fun-loving spirit while hard at work.

“I learned from them, because children are so pure and they are so honest in what they do. I would just marvel at them day after day, watching them react to each other, react to me, fully be in the moment in a real sense of play,” Berry remembers. “I think as we become adults and we act more and more, we get older and older, we can lose that ability to listen and play and be 100% present. But kids do that better than anybody. That’s all they know, is to play and listen and be present.”

“I actually reminded myself through working with them to stay childlike and playful and do whatever comes to mind, to be instinctive,” she adds. “They reminded me of that every day as I watched them navigate through the scenes.”

Berry also took away other insightful reminders from “Never Let Go,” like why it’s important to embrace even the most uncomfortable parts of humanity, including fear. “We all deal with fear,” she said. “[It’s] not an unhealthy part of being human. I think it’s when that fear gets the best of us and stifles us, that’s when it becomes a problem. But a good amount of healthy fear, I think, is a good thing.”

At least one occasion when fear paid off for Berry was when she made her directorial debut with 2020’s “Bruised,” the Netflix sports drama in which she also starred. The actor says she was “afraid” to direct the film, but did so anyway when her search for a director came up short.

“I was scared to death of that,” she recalls. “That was a lot for me to do. But I also know that when you channel your fear in a healthy way, walk through the fear and get to the other side of it, no matter what the outcome, you’ve faced a fear and so therefore you’ve grown. You have more confidence because you dared to go through it. So I think fear is a very healthy emotion that we all have to learn to wrestle with and work with for our growth. And you can’t outrun fear. [It’s] gonna find you no matter where you are, so you might as well face it. That’s the only way to tackle it.”

Initially, Berry wasn’t sure if she, Aja, Percy and Anthony could pull off “Never Let Go.” “I was afraid that if we get this wrong, this idea of this great screenplay just won’t work,” she says. However, Berry has embraced the film since coming out of that experience. In fact, she switched up her methods in promoting the horror flick to bring some levity to an otherwise intense watch.

Berry’s suggestion? Wig screenings, of course.

In honor of her infamous movie wigs, which have become a running joke on social media over the years — Berry’s own favorites are from “The Call,” “Losing Isaiah” and the “X-Men” films — Berry invited fans via her socials to watch “Never Let Go” in person wearing their best faux hairdos.

To Berry, having platforms where she can connect with fans in real time and, crucially, do so positively — not just to “spew hatred and put each other down” — is the best part of social media. And it’s her favorite part overall about releasing “Never Let Go.”

“It’s just a great way to connect and show fans that you appreciate them,” she says. “To connect to them so they can feel you and you can feel them. That’s what it’s all about. I don’t ever want to give the impression that I want people to come to a movie to benefit me and not have them feel like I don’t appreciate that. I want to be in exchange with my fans, I just don’t want to say, ‘Here, do this ’cause I’m asking you to.’ I want to give back to them, too, in real ways that are meaningful and tangible to them.”

“Never Let Go” is now playing in theaters.