Halle Berry, X-Men superstar, reveals Fox’s underhanded tactics that convinced her to return for The Last Stand
Halle Berry, who played Storm, discusses the «shady» circumstances of her return for X-Men: The Last Stand. Even though Storm is one of the most popular characters in X-Men history and Berry portrayed Storm four times since the start of the X-Men movie franchise in 2000, Berry’s Storm had little to do in Fox’s X-Men films. Storm took part in the team battles throughout the original trilogy of X-Men and X-Men: Days of Future Past but beyond that, she barely had a character arc of her own.
On Instagram, Halle Berry shares a video review by popculturebrain, which breaks down director Matthew Vaughn’s story about resigning from X-Men: The Last Stand. Vaughn claims that 20th Century Fox inserted a fake opening sequence into X-Men: The Last Stand, where Storm, portrayed by Halle Berry, summons a rainstorm in Africa to provide water for starving children. Yet, this scene was allegedly added solely to entice Berry to join the project, after which the scene would be discarded. Halle Berry captions her post: «You never know the shady sh*t going on behind your back! Thanks, Matthew Vaughn, for bringing the darkness to light.»
«I walked into one of the executive’s office and saw a script for X3, and immediately knew it was much thicker. I thought, ‘What the hell is this draft?’. And they said, ‘Don’t worry about it’. I told them: ‘Yes, I’m the director and I care about this draft. Tell me what it is, please’. But they didn’t want to.»
«And it seemed crazy, but I grabbed it, opened the first page and it read: ‘Africa. Storm. Children dying from lack of water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children’. Well, that’s a pretty cool idea. What’s this?»
«And they said, ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. Because she hasn’t signed yet. This is what she wants it to be. But once she signs, we’ll toss it in the trash’. I thought, ‘Wow, you’re going to do this to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m out of here. So I resigned at that moment.»
What does Halle Berry’s comments on Fox’s «Shady Sh*t» mean?
Constant shifting variables behind superhero blockbusters can present tempting opportunities for studios to give actors, directors and writers inaccurate or unrealistic expectations. Halle Berry’s third appearance as Storm in Fox’s X-Men film franchise stands as one such instance. For example, Hugo Weaving told Time Out that Marvel «held back on contracts» after his first appearance, hence he declined Avengers: Endgame. Similarly, War Machine was recast with Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard due to disagreements over salary expectations after Iron Man.
Jessica Alba shared her frustrations in 2010 about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where the director told her: «Can you be prettier when you cry?». Alba reveals that this made her rethink her acting career. Fast forward to 2021, MCU star Scarlett Johansson had a legal dispute with Marvel when the studio premiered Black Widow while the film was still in theaters. However, Johansson and Marvel resolved the dispute shortly thereafter.
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