Halle Berry names her five favourite films of all time
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Credit: Gage Skidmore
Why Halle Berry turned down the chance to be in ‘Speed’ with Keanu Reeves
Starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, 1994’s Speed is one of the most iconic films of the decade. However, it could have been very different, with Halle Berry once in the frame for the character of Annie Porter, Bullock’s character.
Notably, the film centres around a bus that is rigged by a terrorist to explode if its speed falls below 50 miles per hour. So incredibly of its pst-modern dripping decade, and featuring one of the best on-screen partnerships between Reeves and Bullock, there’s a lot to love about it, even if it is nearly 30 years old.
The chemistry between Reeves and Bullock is so palpable that it is hard to imagine anybody else in the role, with the film being credited as the one that cemented the former as an action star after Point Blank, paving the way for The Matrix and John Wick franchises. Added to its significance is the fact that it is what made Sandra Bullock, who is now one of the most loved actors in Hollywood.
It transpires that Berry was invited to read for Speed, but she rejected it. When appearing in an April 1995 edition of Movieline, Berry revealed her reasons for turning down the film and explained that the lack of dialogue in the script was one of the main factors that influenced her decision. “I turned down Speed because I thought, ‘I don’t want to drive that bus,’” Berry said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of dialogue.”
“I admit, I just don’t get it when I read action stuff like, ‘The bus flies 100 miles per hour over an overpass,’” she continued. “One of the script versions they sent me, the bus never got out of Dodger Stadium, it just kept driving around and around the parking lot!”
Berry did reveal that she was a fan of the fact that the casting for Speed was colour-blind, a rarity for the era, and added to this, after watching it she did have some regrets about her decision.
“What did feel good when I read it, though, was thinking, ‘Okay, this is not my Academy Award-winning role, but here I’m being offered something that wasn’t written for a Black woman,’” Berry said. “When I watched the finished movie, I loved it and I thought to myself, ‘The movie gods sure didn’t talk to me that day.’”
Interestingly though, Berry opined that she might not have enjoyed such a meteoric rise as Bullock did after Speed, due to her race.
“Had it been me driving that bus, that wouldn’t be my reality, and that’s a fact,” Berry said. “It’s not my reality after being in The Flintstones, one of the biggest movies of the year, so why would I think it should be my reality after Speed? As a Black woman, I know better. My reality is very different. My struggle is very different.”
