Halle Berry Talks CATWOMAN, Hating the Backlash and How the Film's Failure Was Put on Her

The 20th anniversary of Catwoman is this year, and Halle Berry recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the film to mark the occasion.

As you know, Catwoman was not well received, was panned by critics and fans, and it completely bombed at the box office. Berry was even awarded a Razzie for her performance, and she famously showed up to the ceremony with her Oscar in hand to accept her reward, which was great!

But, Berry was not a fan of the backlash, and she hated how the film’s failure was put squarely on her shoulders even though there were other people involved with making that film like the writers, the director, and the producers.

Barry said: “I felt like it was Halle Berry’s failure, but I didn’t make it alone. All these years, I’ve absolutely carried it.”

I just have to say it’s not her fault the film sucked, it was mainly the writing, direction, and executive decisions! We all know Berry is a great actress, unfortunately with that film, there were not so talented people involved with making the movie.

The actress went on to share her thoughts on the story, saying: “I always thought the idea of Catwoman saving women from a face cream felt a bit soft. All the other superheroes save the world; they don’t just save women from cracked faces.

“I always knew that was a soft superhero plight, but at that time in my career, I didn’t have the agency I have today or belief that I could challenge that, so I went along with it.”

Berry added: “things went smoothly [for me]” during production and “it was a great shoot. I had the time of my life. I worked my ass off to embody a cat in so many ways, psychologically and physically.

“I never thought it went awry; I just thought that maybe it wouldn’t feel as big as other movies because the plot stakes aren’t as high.”

It was when the first image of Halle Berry wearing her Catwoman costume hit the internet that the fan hate began. I remember seeing that image when it was posted on Ain’t It Cool News back in the day.

Fans were angry that the character’s trademark catsuit was replaced with a silly-looking more scantily-clad outfit, which did kind of look ridiculous. But, they all thought it was cool!

Regarding that costume, producer Denise Di Novi explained their thinking: “That was the first thing that started the negativity. It was an early shot before we’d perfected it. It was so different than what people were used to in the other movie.

“A catsuit, by definition, everything is covered up. We thought it’d be cool to be more rock & roll and bare. Halle was famous for wearing a bikini in her Bond movie, and we were like, why not?

“People had such a reaction to it, which is so ridiculous. We had the famous Colleen Atwood helping us with just that costume. Halle had a lot of input. I still think it’s cool and a lot more modern!”

Berry added: “Fans were upset about the suit. It was something different, but in our minds, why keep remaking Catwoman if you’re not going to take risks and bring something different to it? The beauty was that it was better suited for my version of her, my body, who I was, and my sensibilities.”

When talking about the negative reaction to the film after it was released, Berry said: “I didn’t love [the backlash]. Being a Black woman, I’m used to carrying negativity on my back, fighting, being a fish swimming upstream by myself.

“I’m used to defying stereotypes and making a way out of no way…It didn’t derail me because I’ve fought as a Black woman my whole life. A little bad publicity about a movie? I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t going to stop my world or derail me from doing what I love to do.”

She went on to share what she hated about the whole thing: “I hated that it got all put on me, and I hate that, to this day, it’s my failure. I know I can carry it.

“I still have a career 20 years later. It’s just part of my story. That’s okay, and I’ve carried other failures and successes. People have opinions, and sometimes they’re louder than others. You just have to keep moving.”

Catwoman was just a product of its time and how studios were trying to be edgy with comic book movies at a time when comic book movies were still trying to find their way. This attempt at Catwoman just didn’t work.