It’s time for a mom to come to the rescue. “Taken” and plenty of other action flicks have seen dads go to hell and back to save their kids. Now Halle Berry is getting the chance to be a hero to her abducted son in “Kidnap,” and that opportunity is what drew her to the project.
“I love seeing a woman, and a woman of color, get to save the day,” Berry told Variety. “Men save the day all the time in movies and it’s nice to see a woman do what I know women can do.” Berry said she was especially affected by the script because she herself is a mom and the premise is “scary.”
“Kidnap’s” director, Luis Prieto, also spoke about the significance of the film’s protagonist being a woman. “It’s a very interesting story, obviously it’s a movie that fits within the genre of kidnapping movies,” he observed. “We’ve seen a lot of movies like that, but we’ve never seen a movie where the protagonist is a woman, much less where the protagonist is a mother.”
Berry won an Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for “Monster’s Ball,” making her the first — and only — black actress to win the award. “This is for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance because this door has been opened,” she said as she accepted the honor.
The “X-Men” actress recently spoke out about the lack of change since her historic win. “It’s troubling, to say the least,” she admitted. “It was probably one of my lowest professional moments,” she added, referencing the two consecutive years of #OscarsSoWhite. “I sat there and I thought, ‘Wow, [my speech] really meant nothing, that meant nothing. I thought it meant something but I think that meant nothing,’” Berry explained. “And I was profoundly hurt by that and saddened by that and it inspired me to try and get involved in other ways.”
Berry plans to start producing more and directing to “start being a part of making more opportunities for people of color.” She said, “We have to start telling stories that include us and if stories don’t include us, we have to start asking, ‘Why can’t that be a person of color? Why can’t that white male character be a black woman? Why can’t it?’ We have to start pushing the envelope and asking these questions.”
“Kidnap” hits theaters August 4.
