Home Movies

Halle Berry’s gruelling training for “Bruised” started as she filmed “John Wick 3”

Halle Berry's transformation into a battle scarred mixed martial artist started while the actress was on the set of John Wick 3" Parabellum.

Halle Berry definitely wasn’t easing into a comfortable director’s chair for her directorial debut, Bruised. In a recent Vanity Fair interview, the star reports six-hour training sessions in the gym to into the shape of her MMA fighter character. The training overlapped into her time filming John Wick 3 and the actor stated that she found inspiration in Wick star Keanu Reeves, marvelling at the 57-year-old’s ability to perform Wick’s challenging action sequences.

Recommended Videos

Reflecting on her own training process for Bruised, Berry said, “When I started training for John Wick I already knew that Bruised was coming. I sort of got the offer to do those movies around the same time. So the beauty of that was when I was training for John Wick I was also training for Bruised at the same time, in a small way. Part of that training was just getting my body used to five, six hours of training a day. I was changing my diet, learning about recovery. I was really pushing myself to the limit and I knew that was what I’d have to do for Bruised. It was one big period of time when I knew I’d do these two movies back to back that would challenge me like I’ve never been challenged before.”

John Wick 3 - Parabellum - Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry

In Bruised, the actor/director portrays former UFC fighter Jackie “Pretty Bull” Justice, who overcomes multiple challenges to earn a new shot at a Mixed Martial Arts title. Bruised reached the number one most watched spot on Netflix after it was released on the service prompting them to offer Berry a further multi-film contract that would allow her to add to her directorial resume.

Berry is already well known to audiences for her work in blockbuster tentpoles such as the X-Men films and the James Bond franchise but also in critically acclaimed work such as Monsters’ Ball for which she earned the Acadamy Award for her performance. Bruised marks a new chapter in Berry’s career and the new Netflix contract ensure we will be seeing more of her behind the camera efforts in the years to come.

Halle-Berry

The star doesn’t appear to be disappearing behind the camera though. She is scheduled to next appear in the Rolan Emmerich Sci-Fi disaster film Moonfall which will be released in theaters in February 2022.