Halle Berry is said to be unrecognizable in the film, where she plays a disgraced mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Jackie Justice, who is trying to crawl her way back into the limelight by facing one of MMA’s rising stars as well as prove to be a sufficient role model for her 6-year old son. The Berry directorial debut was scripted by Michelle Rosenfarb. UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko who trained Berry for the role, also stars in the film.
The ‘Monster Ball’ actor had actually broken two ribs on set, which almost halted the entire production. But she pushed through the pain, because as the director, all she could think about was the amount of work put in by the crew and the rehearsals they had gone through to accomplish the various choreographed scenes.
In a time when studios were being challenged to bring in a more diverse cast, Berry successfully pitched herself for the script as both actor and director for the film. The pitch for the film is similar to a lot of other fighting films, so adding a woman of colour as the face for the film would be a refreshing take on the sub-genre.
The project has been produced by Basil Iwanyk, Brad Feinstein, Guymon Casady, Erica Lee, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas, Linda Gottlieb and Gillian Hormel. There has been no release date set yet for the film by Netflix, but you can follow us here on our website or on our Twitter handle for more updates.