SPOILER ALERT: This story contains some details about the new movie “Crime 101.”
In “Crime 101,” Halle Berry plays an insurance agent for the rich and powerful. In one of the film’s most heartbreaking scenes, her character is humiliated by her ageist and misogynistic boss (Paul Adelstein) when he shames her for being 53.
“I know the heartbreak of that,” Berry told me Tuesday night at the “Crime 101” premiere in downtown Los Angeles. “I know how marginalized women feel when they get around those numbers, and so I think I felt it for every woman who has been there and felt that way.”
The Oscar winner continued, “It’s wrong and I think as women we have to reclaim the narrative. We’re not done at 50, 60, even 70. We have so much more to offer. I’m 60 this year and I feel like I’m just getting my second groove started, so not done.”
The scene didn’t originally mention her age. Berry asked director and co-writer Bart Layton for a rewrite for something more powerful and toxic. “She said, ‘I want you to give me something that I don’t see coming,’” Layton said.
Berry’s character does eventually get her say when she returns to the office to quit. When the boss tries to say something as she’s warning a young female associate about him, she tells him to “shut the fuck up.”
“I’ve said that to a few of my bosses,” Berry said. “[It feels] amazing because that means I’m standing up for myself as a woman and I’m empowered. That has felt really good every time I’ve had to do that.”
“Crime 101,” based on Don Winslow’s novella of the same name, stars Chris Hemsworth as a jewel thief who tries to complete his biggest heist before calling it quits. Mark Ruffalo and Corey Hawkins play detectives on his trail while Barry Keoghan is a competing thief and Nick Nolte is a crime boss. Monica Barbaro plays Hemsworth’s love interest.
Meanwhile, Berry shot down rumors that she’s reprising her role as X-Men’s Storm in the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday.”
“Storm’s not there,” Berry said. “I promise you. You all think I’m being coy and I’m being silly, but I’m not there.”
She told ScreenRant recently that she’d be up for a Marvel reunion at some point: “I would do that in a heartbeat.
“Crime 101” is in theaters Feb. 13.