How Halle Berry explained her 'Bruised' sex scenes to her teenage daughter
Halle Berry had to have a conversation with her teenage daughter about sexuality after accidentally showing her a lesbian sex scene she starred in.
In Netflix's Bruised, the actor, 55, plays a UFC fighter who has a sexual encounter with both a man and a woman and an early screening of the drama prompted Berry's 13-year-old daughter, Nahla, to demand a conversation with her mother about love scenes and sexuality.
Although the Monster's Ball star wasn't entirely convinced the screening was "not totally appropriate" for her daughter, she wanted her to see what she'd worked so hard on and why she'd missed so much time with her.
"So Nahla watches the love scene [with a man]. She’s looking at me and she’s like, 'Oh, whoa, mum. Really? Wow!'" Berry tells fellow actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes on their SmartLess Podcast.
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"So then, my editor, who’s sitting next to me not really realising my daughter is there, says, 'Go to the second love scene, I want to see what that looks like.' Well, that’s a love scene with a woman.
“My daughter’s like, ‘Whoa, Mum, we need to have some conversations. You didn’t tell me’.
“And I said, ‘Nahla, this is a movie, none of this is true. Like, none of this is real’. It started a conversation — really for the first time — about what I do and about playing characters and what’s real and what’s not real."
Berry went on to explain that her daughter was asking all sorts of questions about the love scenes including: 'how do you do that? and 'how does it make you feel?'
“I explained those are some of the hardest scenes actors do, the most awkward. It’s not always fun," Berry continues.
“So I had a real conversation with my daughter about that, about my sexuality, about my work in the business and how hard I had to fight to do the film.”
Berry went on to say that her daughter only saw the love scenes because the editor wanted to check the colour during the early screening.
“The irony is that she only ended up seeing those two love scenes because the colour was all wrong so the editor called time on the screening,” Berry adds.
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As well as being mum to Nahlia, from her past relationship with Gabriel Aubry, Berry also shares an 8-year-old son with ex-husband Olivier Martinez.
During the chat Berry also opened up about another unique parenting experience, which came about when she home-schooled her two children during lockdown in 2020.
“I became so involved with my children in a whole new way," she explained. "I became a home-school teacher and we had to find things to do within the house. Our creativity went to a higher level."
One positive of the enforced time together was a strengthening of their relationships.
“We became closer as a family," Berry explains. "My children found ways to start getting along because they had to actually talk to each other. They were friends.”
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Martial arts fan Berry has also previously spoken out on how she hopes to inspire her daughter through her own work both on and off screen.
“You know what it says to her? She can do anything she wants," Berry says. "And as a little girl, a little Black girl, a woman — a girl of colour, she needs to see these images. She needs to realise that her mom can do anything she sets her mind to doing.
"She needs to understand that what she will have to do, and I’m going to require this, is she will have to learn some form of martial arts. I’m adamant about especially women learning how to protect themselves. I think that’s key.”
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Last year, the Oscar winning actor celebrated her daughter's 13th birthday, marking the milestone with a sweet throwback photo of the mother-daughter duo.
"No matter how many times I tell her I love her, I love her more than that," she wrote in the caption. "Happy 13th Birthday Nahla Boo."
She also shared a glimpse into the moments in her life that matter the most to her, time spent with her children.
Back in April the Gothika actor shared a sweet snapshot of herself with her son and daughter sitting on a beach.
The trio sat huddled together facing the ocean in the candid image, which Berry captioned: "the moments that matter most..."
