The 2004 movie Halle Berry will always regret but never hide from: “A piece of shit, god-awful movie”
Back at the turn of the new millennium, there were few movie stars who could match the consistency of Halle Berry, being recognised for her critically acclaimed work as well as popular projects. Rising to the fold alongside the likes of Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock and Winona Ryder, Berry became one of the era’s greatest actors, with her fame carrying her through to prominent success in the modern era.
It was the 2000s when Berry shone the brightest, earning the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ thanks to her incredible performance in the 2001 film Monster’s Ball, becoming the first Black woman to win the award in the process. Yet, the key to the actor’s success came in her versatility, for, alongside these award-winning roles, Berry also participated in highly popular film franchises such as the Marvel X-Men movies as well as James Bond, appearing in 2002’s admittedly forgettable Die Another Day.
During this peak, there was one other specific film role which many expected to be yet another illustrious addition to her growing filmography. However, the film in question ended up becoming a catastrophic failure and was lampooned by critics as well as fans who thought that the entire production was nothing more than a joke that threatened the existence of an entire genre.
That role was Berry’s rendition of Catwoman in the eponymous 2004 film which ended up becoming a critical and commercial failure. Voted by some critics as one of the worst films of all time, Catwoman ended up earning seven Golden Raspberry nominations at the Razzie Awards, the antithesis of the Oscars, with Berry graciously taking home the award for ‘Worst Actress’.
While many actors shy away from their Golden Raspberry nominations and awards, Berry personally accepted her ‘Worst Actress’ award and revealed her opinion about the film in her acceptance speech: “First of all, I want to thank Warner Brothers. Thank you for putting me in a piece of shit, god-awful movie…It was just what my career needed”.
Berry’s willingness to embrace the moment immediately set her apart from many of her contemporaries. Rather than distancing herself from the project or blaming the production, she treated the award as an opportunity to demonstrate humility, acknowledging that even the most celebrated careers contain missteps. It was a rare display of self-awareness in an industry where failure is often met with silence, helping to soften the lasting impact of the film on her reputation.
It also reflected the uncertainty surrounding comic-book adaptations at the time. Before shared cinematic universes became Hollywood’s safest commercial bet, superhero films existed in a far less predictable landscape, where critical disasters regularly sat alongside genuine breakthroughs. Taking on a character like Catwoman was therefore less of a guaranteed career move than it would appear in hindsight, making Berry’s decision easier to understand within the context of the era.
Released long before Marvel had any sort of grip on a schedule, Catwoman was one of many movie experiments by the company, which was seemingly testing the waters to see what floated with audiences. A lame attempt at superhero success, the film told the story of a woman with cat-like reflexes who bordered the line between hero and villain, constantly tussling between these two identities.
Considered one of the worst superhero movies of all time and a key film in Marvel’s early foundational development, Catwoman somehow managed to be worse than the likes of 2004’s Punisher, 2005’s Elektra and the studio’s first attempts at making a Hulk film in 2003. Aside from the successful X-Men and Spider-Man movies that are still adored by Marvel fans, only the Fantastic Four films enjoyed some semblance of success.
Since then, Berry has learnt how to look at the role in a more positive way and she now claims that the movie actually helped her. In a speech given far later in her career, she commented: “Everybody around me said, ‘Girl, don’t do it. It’s going to be the death of you. It’s going to end your career’. But guess what I did? I followed my intuition and I did a movie called Catwoman and it bombed miserably”.
Continuing, she added: “While it failed to most people, it wasn’t a failure for me because I met so many interesting people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise, I learned two forms of martial arts and I learned not what to do”.
Ever the professional, Berry has never let the Catwoman mistake, or any career slip-up for that matter, stop her in her tracks, directing her first movie in 2020 in the form of the lovingly crafted sports film Bruised.
