Halle Berry is shouting out her former co-star Pierce Brosnan with some invaluable praise.
The Oscar winner appeared opposite the former James Bond star in the 2002 flick Die Another Day. The movie was critically panned, and ended up being Pierce’s last turn as the iconic spy ― but Halle said the British star “will always be my Bond”, and that moreover, he single-handedly gave her hope for men worldwide.
“He will always be my Bond, always,” Halle, who played National Security Agency operative Jinx Johnson in the film, recently told Wired.
“I’m a Pierce Brosnan fan. He restored my faith in men on that movie. There couldn’t be a human who is more of a gentleman than Pierce Brosnan.”
“I loved those movies, always,” she went on. “Having been in one, I feel like I’m a part of cinematic history. Those movies are iconic. They will forever be a part of our history, and I’m really honoured to have been part of one, especially with Pierce.”
Halle ― the only Black woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Actress, for the 2001 film Monster’s Ball ― has spent the last few weeks promoting her latest role in The Union opposite Mark Wahlberg.
She’s also publicly celebrated her 58th birthday, posed topless to mark the 20th anniversary of Catwoman, and essentially told critics of the 2004 superhero flop to quit whining.
Halle told Wired that being in a Bond film “wasn’t on my wishlist”, and Die Another Day turned out not to be an auspicious outing. Fans rolled their eyes as they watched Brosnan-as-Bond surf his way into North Korea. The movie came out just months after the more grounded spy thriller The Bourne Identity hit cinemas, and the contrast wasn’t flattering.
“A midrange series entry that sports some tasty scenes, mostly in the first half, but also pushed 007 into CGI-driven, quasi-sci-fi territory that feels like a betrayal of what the franchise has always been about,” wrote film critic Todd McCarthy for Variety at the time.
Pierce had already wowed viewers with his GoldenEye Bond debut in 1995, but while each of his four films grossed more than the last, Die Another Day was such a critical flop that Eon Productions opted to reimagine the franchise for modern times, with Daniel Craig becoming the latest actor to step into the role.
Halle, for her part, has experience with naysaying critics, particularly those (many) who slammed Catwoman. Last week, she said on The Tonight Show of the movie: “You know, the critics said it sucked balls ... Balls aren’t that bad.”