Halle Berry became one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, having won Oscars and starred in blockbusters. But if she realized just how crazy the world of celebrity was earlier, Berry might’ve gone down a different path.
Halle Berry once revealed what she would’ve done if she wasn’t an actor
Berry didn’t always have her sights set on acting. She initially went to school in the hopes of finding more traditional work.
“I was going to college, I wanted to be a journalist,” Berry once told BlackTree TV. “I wanted to be a news anchor, or travel the far seas and report.”
But Berry’s motivations changed when she ended up taking a summer class on a whim.
“It’s when I was living in Chicago, I took a class in second city, just for s***s and giggles. Just because I was having a boring summer and just wanted to do something with myself. And through that experience, one of my teachers there said, ‘I really think you should be an actor, I think you have just a natural talent.’ I never thought of that. But because I so respected that school and this teacher, I decided to take a detour and check that out. And then one thing led to the next, and then here I am.”
But although Berry’s acting career went more than well, there was one aspect of superstardom she could’ve done without. If the actor knew that her chosen career would cost the X-Men star her personal life, she most likely would’ve done something else.
“I wish that I had really understood the toll that it would take on my personal life. The invasion of my personal life that being an actor would cause. I really would have thought twice, three times, about it had I known 20 years ago that I wouldn’t be able to get gas in my car or take my daughter to school without a band of people following me. I’m not so sure I would have done this job,” she once told Blavity.
Halle Berry had to beg for roles because she was seen as too beautiful
Berry’s looks might’ve worked in her favor, but they could also work against her at times. When she was first considered for Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, she was initially tapped to play the director’s wife in the picture. But she wanted to play a far less glamorous part, which Lee had reservations about because of Berry’s face.
“Spike Lee wanted me to read for the part of his wife and I read that part fine enough, but then I said to Spike, ‘You know I really am eyeing this crack ho role, can you please let me audition for that?’ And he said, ‘No, no I don’t see you as the crack ho,’” Berry once told W Magazine. (via Daily Mail) “I said, ‘I am the crack ho. Really deep down I’m the crack ho.’ And he was like, ‘No, I don’t see it.’”
She eventually acquired the role, and proved her ability to play a wide range of characters. But her looks continued to put a barrier between herself and the roles she truly wanted.
“Yeah, it was intentional to not play the gorgeous girl,” she added. “I came from the world of beauty pageants and modeling and right away when people heard that I got discounted as an actor. So, I had the job of trying to eliminate that part of my persona, and Spike gave me a chance to do that. And I took on roles early on that really didn’t rely on my physical self at all and that was a good way to sort of get some credibility within my industry.”
