Halle Berry recalled her journey from being an actress to the director and the courage she had to redesign the storyline around a Black MMA fighter instead of a white woman. The 54-year-old actress has won many hearts with her upcoming movie even before she began the filming.

Berry will make her directorial debut with her upcoming movie, Bruised. The actress opened up about her way towards being a director and producer of the next venture during the Toronto International Film Festival through video conference.

The movie revolves around an MMA fighter who has been disgraced for her past, Jackie Justice. The character is a 25-year-old girl who is an Irish Catholic and gets entangled in a battle of custody for her son. Eventually, the character ends up in a ring to fight against an old rival.

Berry said as soon as she comes across the story, she understood that it wasn't written for her. However, she was keen to portray the tough character. "I knew as written it could not be me, but what I loved about the story is it was a classic fight film. I loved the fractured brokenness of this character, and I love to see a film that's about redemption," she said.

The Alex Haley's Queen star explained that she wanted to witness the spirit of a human soar and someone passing through all the hurdles successfully and still stand strong after all. The actress recalled her trajectory that was followed by a similar sentiment, which helped her to convince the makers of the movie that she should be reimagined as a Black middle-aged woman portraying this character rather than a 25-year-old playing it.

Berry explained that producers allowed her to alter the storyline as per her convenience but she also had to find other characters that would support the lead and also someone to direct the movie. The Oscar-winning actress revealed that she had a word with several directors, including new directors and accomplished ones. According to the actress, she approached directors from all genders but things didn't work out.

However, things didn't go well as she couldn't connect with anyone of them. She further disclosed that it was her friend, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas who served as a producer on various projects such as World of Dance, and Shades of Blue encouraged Berry to debut as a director in order to portray her vision. Berry agreed to Goldsmith-Thomas after sleeping on the idea.