Halle Berry Reveals First Official 'Bruised' Still

Blood, sweat and tears! All of that can be expected when Halle Berry's directorial debut 'Bruised', premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

In the upcoming story of redemption, the Academy Award winner plays Jackie “Justice,” a disgraced MMA fighter that lost at the one thing she’s good at. When her six-year-old son comes back into her life, she decides to fight for him to give him a good life and starts training to become the champion she was meant to be, and featival co-head Cameron Bailey has touted it one of the "very best performances of her career". The script is by Michelle Rosenfarb and the movie will be produced by John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk.

Halle Berry Hints At New Romance With Instagram Photo

After nearly three years as a single woman, Halle Berry may have new love in her life. The 53-year-old actress shared a photo with a bottle of wine and a mystery man's feet next to her own, which she simply captioned "sunday,funday". See the post below:

View this post on Instagram

sunday,funday❤️

A post shared by Halle Berry (@halleberry) on Jul 19, 2020 at 6:10pm PDT

Halle Berry Backs Out Of Transgender Role Amid Backlash

Halle Berry has closed the door on the opportunity to play a transgender character after mounting backlash from the community, and it should be noted that the Academy Award winner was never officially cast in the film. Read more of the story and her response below:

Variety: Halle Berry has pulled out of a role in an upcoming film in which she’d play a transgender character after facing backlash online.

In an Instagram live interview on Friday, the actor said she had been preparing for the role, but had not been officially cast.

“[It’s] a character where the woman is a trans character, so she’s a woman that transitioned into a man. She’s a character in a project I love that I might be doing,” Berry had said. She added that she wanted to take a “deep dive” into “that world,” likely referring to the trans community.

However, Berry faced backlash online after misgendering the character multiple times during the interview. “Who this woman was is so interesting to me, and that will probably be my next project,” she said.

On Monday night, she issued an apology and pulled out of the role, saying “the transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories.”

“Over the weekend I had the opportunity to discuss my consideration of an upcoming role as a transgender man, and I’d like to apologize for those remarks. As a cisgender woman, I now understand that I should not have considered this role, and that the transgender community should undeniably have the opportunity to tell their own stories,” she wrote. “I am grateful for the guidance and critical conversation over the past few days and will continue to listen, educate and learn from this mistake. I vow to be an ally in using my voice to promote better representation on-screen, both in front of and behind the camera.”

Berry’s comments caught the attention of the Twitter account for the Netflix documentary “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen,” which was released last month and examines Hollywood’s portrayal of transgender people and their stories.

The doc’s account asked that Berry watch the film to “understand how cis actors like yourself acting in trans roles has major cultural consequences offscreen.”

After Berry’s apology, the account thanked her for “listening and learning.” The LGBTQ rights organization GLAAD also responded, saying “We are pleased that Halle Berry listened to the concerns of transgender people and learned from them. Other powerful people should do the same. A good place to start is by watching ‘Disclosure’ to learn about trans representation in media.”

In recent years, cisgender actors have faced controversy over playing transgender characters. In 2018, Scarlett Johansson was cast as a transgender character in the film “Rub and Tug,” sparking backlash from trans rights groups and activists. A week later, she exited the role.

Halle Berry's MMA Drama 'Bruised' To Premiere At TIFF 2020

Last month, the Toronto International Film Festival announced that their 2020 festival would be scaled back in light of coronavirus and revealed the first films scheduled to premiere at the festival including the MMA drama 'Bruised', which is the directorial debut from Academy Award winner Halle Berry. Read more about the plans for the festival below:

Variety: It’s safe to say that the 2020 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival won’t be like any of the 44 editions that preceded it. We are living in the age of the coronavirus, after all.

Because of this new pandemic reality, this year’s TIFF will be a hybrid of physical screenings and virtual events. It unspools between Sept. 10 through Sept. 19 and will include screenings of roughly 50 films during its initial five days — that plan is subject to approval by city and provincial health officials.

Some of these films include “Ammonite,” directed by Francis Lee of “God’s Own Country” renown; “Another Round,” from Danish auteur Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark); “Concrete Cowboys,” an adaptation of the novel Ghetto Cowboy from director Ricky Staub; “Bruised,” the directorial debut film of Oscar-winner Halle Berry (USA); and “True Mothers” by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. More titles will be announced over the summer.

TIFF generates more than $200 million in annual economic activity for Toronto and Ontario, which helped spur the festival’s organizers to come up with a plan for operating safely during COVID-19. Other film festivals such as Tribeca or Cannes have been cancelled, postponed or reconstituted as virtual events.

Earlier this week, TIFF laid off 31 full-time staff positions because of closures related to coronavirus. The organization said it expects there to be a 50% reduction in revenue from 2019, putting a severe financial strain on its operations.

For the first time in its history, TIFF will launch a digital platform for the festival. Over the 10 days, the platform will host digital screenings, as well as numerous talks and special events.

“The pandemic has hit TIFF hard, but we’ve responded by going back to our original inspiration — to bring the very best in film to the broadest possible audience,” said Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of TIFF. “Our teams have had to rethink everything, and open our minds to new ideas. In countless video calls over the past three months we have rebuilt our festival for 2020 drawing on our five decades of commitment to strong curation, support for filmmakers and engagement with audiences.”

For its 45th year, TIFF will be welcoming 50 celebrated filmmakers and actors as TIFF ambassadors. It’s a group that will include Ava DuVernay, Taika Waititi, Anurag Kashyap, Nicole Kidman, Martin Scorsese, Nadine Labaki, Alfonso Cuarón, Riz Ahmed, Rian Johnson, Jason Reitman, Isabelle Huppert and Claire Denis.

“We could never have anticipated the global seismic changes we would be facing in 2020,” said Joana Vicente, executive director and co-head of TIFF. We tapped into the original spirit of the Festival from when it began in 1976 as our guiding light. The distilled edition of TIFF 2020 reflects a deep love of film, passion for our loyal audiences, commitment to the industry and a whole lot of heart.”

Featured TV Series: 'Extant' Season 1 (June, July & August 2020)

Every single month we look at one of Halle Berry's movies and some of the highlights of that particular period in her life. This summer, in honor of her joining the 'Moonfall' cast, I have decided to briefly switch it up and cover her first foray into space with 'Extant'.

Each week over the next three months, new clips will be posted from a new episode of the series’ 13-episode first season starting with the dramatic pilot and culminating with the explosive season finale. Take a look at the schedule for each episode beneath:

June 01: Episode 01 - “Re-Entry”
June 08: Episode 02 - “Extinct”
June 15: Episode 03 - “Wish You Were Here”
June 22: Episode 04 - “Shelter”
June 29: Episode 05 - “What on Earth is Wrong”

July 06: Episode 06 - “Nightmares”
July 13: Episode 07 - “More in Heaven and Earth”
July 20: Episode 08 - “Incursion”
July 27: Episode 09 - “Care and Feeding”

August 03: Episode 10 - “A Pack of Cards”
August 10: Episode 11 - “A New World”
August 17: Episode 12 - “Before the Blood”
August 24: Episode 13 - “Ascension”

Visit our official Instagram page (@UltimateHalleBerry) for highlights throughout the summer.