Halle Berry knew she had to look the part if she expected to come across as a real MMA fighter in Bruised.
Bruised is out now on Netflix. It stars Berry, who plays the role of disgraced MMA fighter Jackie Justice. Jackie has one last chance at redeeming herself after forfeiting a major fight. Standing in her way is Lucia “Lady Killer” Chavez, who is played by current UFC Women’s Flyweight Champion Valentina Shevchenko.
Halle Berry Cuts Weight
During an interview with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, Halle Berry said she did an actual weight cut in order to look presentable in Bruised.
“It was hard for me cause I had never done that before but that was a really big part of me playing this character. I wanted to experience every aspect of being a fighter that I absolutely could. I wanted to understand what it felt like and being the director of the story, I felt like I needed to understand it. So, the weight cut for me was probably a little more real for me than Valentina. I was preparing like a month and a half before just to get to a good fight weight. I was building muscle and trying to lose weight at the same time so that I could really physically look like a real opponent for her.”
Keith Peterson’s Seal Of Approval
Berry went on to say that referee Keith Peterson approached her after a fight sequence and gave her high praise.
“I remember the day, we were actually doing the fight and we had Keith Peterson, a real UFC referee, and I remember the day he came to me. We had performed one of our sequences and he said, ‘My God, I thought for a minute I was watching a real Valentina fight.’ That’s when I knew that, oh my god, all of this training and weight-cutting and all of this muscle building, everything was all worth it.”
.@halleberry says she did an actual weight cut for the Bruised movie — and got a ringing endorsement from no-nonsense Keith Peterson himself pic.twitter.com/mUSvnOkYh6
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) November 24, 2021