Lena Waithe Reveals She Advised Halle Berry To Second-Guess Making Her Directorial Debut W/ ‘Bruised’: I Love Her & I Wanted To Protect Her

October 22, 2021 by Nick Fenley in TV with 0 Comments

Lena Waithe Reveals She Advised Halle Berry To Second-Guess Making Her Directorial Debut W/ ‘Bruised’: I Love Her & I Wanted To Protect Her

Lena Waithe is dishing on how she tried to dissuade Halle Berry from directing Bruised!

Next month, Bruised–directed by Halle Berry–will be released via Netflix. The upcoming film is centered on Halle Berry‘s Jackie Justice character–a middle-aged MMA fighter who’s prepping for her last chance in the ring and striving to reconnect with her young, estranged son.

As Halle Berry gears up for the release of Bruised, one close friend in the industry is dishing on some advice she gave the actress-turned-director about the venture! While at the ELLE Women in Hollywood event last night (Thursday, Oct. 21st), Lena Waithe revealed that she advised Halle Berry to reconsider the project. Lena Waithe, 37, stated:

“I told her to think long and hard about it before she made that decision. When she came back to me a few weeks later, she told me she understood why I was scared–because I love her and I wanted to protect her. And she was right. But then she said, ‘If I don’t do this, I’ll never forgive myself. I gotta see what I’m made of.’”

Lena Waithe

Halle Berry, 55, corroborated the story, adding:

“It has been my honor and my privilege to direct my first film. What I learned along the way is that it’s f**king hard… It’s hard for all of us, and it’s hard for all of us as women to find our voice and step into our power and to assume that. I had to learn how to do that in the last two and a half years. I know she was scared for me. [But] I knew I had 30 years of experience, I had people who loved me and cared for me and I had earned enough good will in this industry that they would show up and help.”