Summary
When it comes to studios trying to get certain actors to appear in their movies, there’s almost nothing execs won’t do. For oneX-Menactress, that included being tricked into appearing in the final movie in the original trilogy by being shown a fake script.
The story of how the studio showed Halle Berry on script that she wanted the movie to be, and then turned around and made a totally different movie once she was officially signed isn’t a new one. In fact, it’s one that Matthew Vaughn shared aboutX-Men: Last Standwhen he was supposed to direct it but eventually stepped away. What is new about the story ofBerry being totally lied toabout her appearance in the film and how all that went down, is that the famed actress is finally weighing in and giving her thoughts. In the process, she’s made it a bigger statement on the kinds of things lots of people will do to get what they want.
Halle Berry Finally Weighs In On Fox Studios' X-Men Trickery
Berry weighed in on the situation by posting on her Instagram about what went down. She first posted an old video showing Vaughn talking about the situation at the New York Comic Con in 2023. He shared that he saw one rather large script sitting on one of the studio exec’s desk and asked what it was.TheKingsmendirector saidthe higher-ups told him the script was one they had shown to Berry in order to get her to commit to X-Men: Last Stand. She had apparently been reluctant about reprising the role of Storm and Fox wanted her back badly enough they were willing to trick her. Vaughn went on to explain the executives told him that once she had officially signed the deal, they would throw the “fake” script away and use a different one. Vaugh was so uncomfortable with the planned switcheroo that he quit the project and thought that he’d be blackballed by the studio for not going along with the plan.
On theInstagrampost, Berry added a caption to the video saying, “Ya just never know the shady sh– going on behind ya back! Thank you Matthew Vaughn for bringing the dark to light.” That rather short and to the point comment appears to be the first time she’s addressed the issue and it’s clear that the plan to trick the actress worked and she didcome back as one of the original X-Men.
It turns out that Vaughn wasn’t blackballed by Fox after all, despite not going along with the plan to trick Berry.He eventually directedX-Men: First Class, but was still turned off by that section of Hollywood and how it operates, choosing to move out of the superhero genre and instead working on projects likeKingsmen.
Likewise, Berry has stayed away from superhero movies since the originalX-Mentrilogy, though there is some talk Marvel might try and get her back on board for when mutants are officially introduced into the MCU. However, it’s possible she chose to speak on this trickery now in order to explain why she won’t ever be returning to play Storm.
