Having spent over 30 years in the business, you would imagine that Halle Berry has pretty much seen and done it all by this point. After all, the 53 year-old has won an Academy Award for Best Actress in addition to picking up an Emmy and a Golden Globe, starred in both one of the most popular comic book franchises in history as well as perhaps the single worst movie the genre has ever seen, and shown up everywhere from Bond to Bulworth.
Berry started to take a more hands-on role in her output when she produced forgotten 2017 action thriller Kidnap, but the John Wick: Chapter 3 star has now taken things to another level as she puts the finishing touches on her directorial debut Bruised, which she took over after The Notebook‘s Nick Cassavetes dropped out.
The first-time filmmaker also plays the lead role in the sports-orientated drama as a troubled former MMA fighter seeking to regain custody of her 6 year-old son while also trying to restart her career, in a project that sounds like it has shades of massively underrated TV series Kingdom, and could also present Berry the opportunity to remind people why she was labeled as one of the finest actresses of her generation.
While we’re still waiting on a trailer, the first official image from the movie has been released this week showing Berry’s character Jackie Justice ready to throw down, and you can check it out for yourself below:
More and more well-known actors have been making the jump into directing recently and the results have been pretty mixed so far, but as a relatively straightforward-sounding sports movie with a built-in redemption arc, Bruised could turn out to rejuvenate Halle Berry’s fortunes on both sides of the camera when it arrives later this year.