When Deadpool vs. Wolverine was released over the summer, some fans hoped that Halle Berry, who co-starred with Hugh Jackman in the X-Men franchise — where he played the titular clawed mutant and she portrayed Storm, a weather-manipulating mutant — would appear. After all, the Ryan Reynolds film features characters from the same Marvel universe as X-Men.
Unfortunately, those eager to watch Storm summon thunder and lightning were left in the dark. As it turns out, Berry’s return to the franchise might have depended on a crafty plot twist of its own, one that saw the studio using a rather “mutant” tactic to draw her back into the fold.
A clip from last year’s Comic Con has reignited interest in filmmaker Matthew Vaughn’s revelations about Berry’s role in X-Men: The Last Stand. Vaughn, originally set to direct, left after witnessing what he describes as the studio’s deceptive practices. He claims Fox executives crafted a fake script to entice Berry by promising a storyline centered around her character.
Yeah, let that sink in for a moment.
“I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit; I thought, I’m mincemeat,” Vaughn stated. The alleged script depicted Storm saving children in Africa by creating a thunderstorm.
“I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children’ – I thought it was a pretty cool idea.”
Berry, as anyone who’s seen the 2006 film knows, did end up being in the film. But the aforementioned plot never made the cut — and it was never supposed to.
He continued, ‘I said, “What is this?” They said, “This is the Halle Berry script, because she hasn’t signed on yet. This is what she wants it to be. And once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.”‘
Berry was presented with an earlier draft of “The Last Stand” script when she arrived on set, one that did not feature Storm much at all. Having already signed her contract, she was unable to back out, despite receiving a bait and switch script. Vaughn ultimately left the project due the the deceptive act.
Berry shared Vaughn’s interview on social media, thanking Vaughn for exposing the deceptive practices in Hollywood. In her Instagram caption, Halle wrote to her followers, “You never know the shady s*** happening behind your back! Thank you, Matthew Vaughn, for bringing the dark to light.”
Despite the film hitting theaters back in 2006, it’s a harsh reminder that the studio’s shady tactics worked, and even Berry, who was fresh off her Oscar for Monster’s Ball, couldn’t do much about the fact Hollywood gave her an emotionally charged bait-and-switch. And unfortunately, weird behind-the-scenes trickery is still something actors and other Hollywood creatives have to face, as seen with the recent actors and WGA strikes against AI-driven exploitation.
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