Skip to main content

Halle Berry has worked alongside many top actors in the film industry, including Bruce Willis. But when they first collaborated, Berry confided that the two barely interacted with each other.

What Halle Berry initially thought about working with Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis smirking in a suit next to Halle Berry at the premiere of 'Perfect Stranger'.
Halle Berry and Bruce Willis | James Devaney/WireImage

Berry and Willis may be well acquainted now, but they weren’t exactly friends on their first official film together. The two starred in the 1991 Tony Scott feature The Last Boy Scout, where Berry played a stripper. It was one of the first features Berry did at the time during her ascension. Since Willis was already a huge star by the early 90s, she found their interaction to be a bit awkward.

“He didn’t even know I was alive in that movie,” Berry once said according to Black Film. “I don’t even think he looked me in the face. He probably doesn’t know we worked together. He didn’t noticed me back then, and I was so in awe of Bruce Willis and being on a big fancy movie like that.”

But that wouldn’t be the only project Berry and Willis would end up working in. And their reunion couldn’t help but remind the Oscar winner of their earlier work.

“Working with him now reminded me on the absurdity of life on how you can go from one extreme to the other within the same life,” Berry said. “It reminds me that anything is possible always. Just because you are in one place doesn’t mean you can’t go wherever your mind can imagine, because who would have thought that 16 years later we would have a chance to do it again in a way we did this time.”

Halle Berry ended up becoming Bruce Willis’ neighbor

Berry and Willis would later team up once again for the 2007 movie Perfect Stranger. Berry would lead the film this time, which saw her playing a journalist. Berry confided that Willis was the only actor who immediately sprung to mind when thinking about who to cast as her co-star.

“When I got this movie, we talked about who would be the right Harrison Hill, and we talked about who was charismatic and charming, that women love but who men like also. Like, he’s gotta be cheating and you’ve gotta kind of think its okay, and men have to root for him and women have to say ‘it’s okay that you’re that way.’ Who is that guy? And almost simultaneously we all said ‘Bruce Willis,'” Berry said.

Fortunately, Berry and Willis were close to each other in a very literal sense. This made it easy for the X-Men star to propose the movie to Willis.

“And I said ‘it’s funny, he’s my next-door neighbor.’ And they said ‘really?’ And I said ‘yeah, like, I could spit on his front door. He’s my next-door neighbor. Why don’t I just take him the script?’ So I did. I just walked over there and said ‘read this, if you love it, I’d love you to be in it, if you don’t, forget I ever came over here, and I’ll never do this again.’ And he liked it. Like, in a day he called back and said ‘I love it, I really want to do it,'” Berry said.

How Halle Berry responded to Bruce Willis’ crush on him

Related

Halle Berry Divorce: All of the Star’s Child Support and Custody Agreements After Her 3rd Divorce

Willis not only noticed Berry on this film, but in an interview with Access (via Today,) the Pulp Fiction star developed a bit of a crush on his co-star.

“I do have a little crush on Halle,” Willis said.

Berry was eventually asked if she reciprocated Willis’ feelings. Although she laughed, she joked about not ruling out the possibility.

“Never say never, but moving away didn’t help our romance, that’s for sure,” she said.