Hey Vestie's Hello Sunshine.
Today on the bright Side, we're talking to Hollywood icon Halle Berry. Her new horror film Never Let Go is out tomorrow, and our conversation is pretty incredible. She gives me some love advice, and she reveals the shocking way her menopause symptoms were misdiagnosed as herpies. She even shares what she hopes her legacy will be. It's Thursday, September nineteenth. I'm Danielle Robe.
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day. It's a big day today on the bright Side. Danielle, Big day, Big day, y'all. Halle Berry doesn't get bigger than that, Noah, doesn't you know. Halle Berry is a name that I heard a lot in my house when I was growing up, because my mom was an actor
and she deeply admired Halle for a couple of reasons. First, Halle totally flipped the script on what it meant to be an actor of color in Hollywood and redefined the roles that could be offered to people of color.
Oh wow.
And my mom when she was a black actor in the eighties, the roles that were available to her were like prostitute, domestic labor, you know, house cleaner. But then Halle with Monster's Ball, with winning the Oscar, I think really blew open the possibilities.
And the potential for people of color in Hollywood.
Yeah.
But the second reason why I heard so much about Halle is because my mom really celebrated Halle as a mixed race woman. And I think it was my mom's way for her to show me that there were other women out there who looked like me and who were proudly showcasing their talents for the world to see. And I've heard Halle talk about what it was like growing
up for her as a mixed race girl. And you know what happened when she moved to the white suburbs and she was one of three token black girls in her class.
The names that she was called, all of that is so relatable, HM, and I just appreciate her honesty around this topic. Danielle, what do you think of when you think of Halle Berry.
When I think of Halle Berry, I think of how women evolve in their lifetimes. She's had this hugely illustrious acting career and then all of a sudden she became a fierce advocate for women experiencing menopause. I mean, she literally joined senators on Capitol Hill to announce new menopause legislation.
She really lights up when she talks about this issue too. You can tell that this is this is really going to be her next chapter, that she pours all of her heart and effort into.
Yeah, and that gumption didn't start on the steps of Capitol Hill right like, it was sparked long before. I didn't know this previously, but Halle was the first black woman to represent the US in the Miss World competition in nineteen eighty six, and I think that determination and drive are just among the qualities that led her to become the first blackman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
And you know, we can throw out these accolades, but we often underestimate just how challenging it is to be the first in anything. And what I love about her is that she embodies the belief that while she may be the first, she won't be the last. So, just like so many of the interesting people that we've gotten to interview. I think the people that have been through the most have the most to give or to share.
And you know, she's had these public triumphs and personal battles, and her resilience, combined with her advocacy for domestic violence survivors and menopause, makes her story all the more powerful and inspiring.
Talk about inspiring.
She's got a new movie out and she's producing it through her own production company called Hallie Holly. The movie is called Never Let Go. It's a horror film. It's out tomorrow, just in time for spooky season this fall. Okay, let's go ahead and bring her in. Halle Berry, Welcome to the bright Side.
Thank you.
I like the bright side.
You have inspired so many women to hold the door open for others to follow through. I remember you saying that when you accepted your oscar, and you've inspired us on our show to hold the door open for candid conversations about a topic that we don't often talk about, menopause. You are honored by Time one hundred Health as you've lobbied for more extensive menopause research and treatment options, and you publish a lot of these discussions on your platform.
Respin i'd love to know.
What makes you hopeful about the future of policy in this space, I think because.
The time is now. You know, I'm hopeful because we're at a place where I think women are starting to come together. It's like a movement that I'm trying to spearhead because women, I feel like, are coming together and we're realizing the importance of education in the space of women's longevity. Right when women start understanding how much they don't know, but how much they need to know, I think they're starting to stand up and say, hey, I
demand more, I need more, I deserve more. Right. And so the more we can do that and join forces, I think the collective we is going to change what the past has been and we will get that those dollars spent, we will get those clinical trials done, we will you know, learn more about our bodies. We will be studied in ways that we were never studied before. Right, And so I feel that shift happening, and it's the reason I wake up in the morning, It's the reason
I stay up at night. It's become my second life passion to make a difference for women in midlife.
Hallie.
One of the things that I personally admire about you is you're always innovating and pushing forward, and I think RESPIN is such a great example of that. It advocates for more education and research on paramenopause and menopause. I really am so curious as to what's been the biggest surprise to you as you've looked into the research and discovered where those dollars that you mentioned are being allocated for women's health.
Well, you know the NRH, we often get money for, you know, women's health, but menopause or menopausal issues or women going through midlife those issues that gets the least amount of money. And when I realized that, that's when I realized, oh, I've got to stand up, I've got
to put a microphone on this subject. Because that leveled me when I found that out, And what leveled me about it was every woman, if we're blessed, if we're lucky enough to live to our midlife, will go through perimenopause and menopause, and then we've got all those years after. So half the population spends half of their life because we're now living until we're eighty, and menopause starts in your late thirties early forties. Another misconception when I found
that out. I've been in Perrie menopause probably for ten years before I even knew that I was there. When people realize these statistics, they go, oh my god, Yes, we've got to do something about it. You know, women were only allowed in clinical stuff UDI in nineteen ninety three. Up until then, only men were studied in clinical studies. So you wonder why we know nothing about us, Well,
this is why. So that's what was shocking to me when I started to realize how much a part of the conversation we have not been, but how much we deserve to be.
It's still shocking when I hear those numbers, it's pretty unbelievable.
Yeah, and only thirteen percent of doctors in the United States have studied the menopausal, midlife woman body. And for all of them who have studied it, it's usually a chapter in medical school. A chapter, yeah, in medical school. So the ones who really are learned about it have had to go back and get higher education on their own. It's not because it was required of them in any way for their medical degrees.
I can't thank you enough for being vocal about this, because I feel like you really have been instrumental in normalizing these conversations. And you know, one of our producers on our staff actually saw you speak about this alongside doctor Joe Biden at this conference called a Day of Unreasonable Conversation, and you shared this wild story.
Yeah, I thought Joe Biden was gonna was I think she left her body.
Okay, we have to tell them why though, Hollie, because you tell this wild, stranger than fiction story about how you went about getting your menopause symptoms trying to get a diagnosis and they were actually tragically misdiagnosed by your doctor.
Can you share this story one more time with us?
If you really want me to, we do. Okay, Well, I was fifty four. Just want you to know at fifty four, nobody had talked to me about menopause at fifty four and now, and we know we started going into menopause at forty like that's like a tragedy right there. Then nobody had really sat me down and told me anyway. So at fifty four, I had been in a relationship
with my person. You know, it took me a long time to find my person, but I found him and so we were enjoying like the first year of our relationship, everything was amazing. And one morning I woke up after sex and I went to go to the bathroom and it was excruciatingly hard to just urinate. I had no idea why. I had never felt this feeling before. And as the day went on, it got worse and worse
and worse. So I went to see my doctor and I said, hey, I don't know what, like what's happening, but like I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina, like I've never felt this before. I can't go in to the bathroom. I can't shut my legs, like I said. My boyfriend had to drive me here because I'm just in a lot of pain. So he, you know, does his exam. He looks up there and he says, oh, I know exactly what this is. I said, great, Great. What he said, I hate to tell you this, but
this looks like a really bad case of herpes. Oh, my heart, berees what I I said.
Wow.
He goes, I'm going to do the test and I'll send it out. You'll get the results back in three days. But I've been doing this a long time. I've seen this enough. This is a really bad case of herpes, and he's like, you got a new guy. I'm like yeah. He's like, well I think this is what this is. Sorry, So I go down. Of course my new guy is down there in the car. So I'm like, hey, you you got herpes. It's like, oh, I have herpes. I said, well, you clearly do have herpes, because now I have herpes.
And I didn't have herpes before I knew you. I've never been told I have herpes. I said, well, let me be the first to tell you have herpes. You just gave it to me.
Now two people got diagnosed with herpes.
And so it caused a big, you know, friction between us because I would have thought that would be a conversation we would have had if he had herpes. None of these things are ever doing breakers, but like, there's a conversation should have. So he's I said, emn you need to go get a test because I've gotten a test, and then we're going to see like who's got the herpes here. So we both went and got a test.
Sure enough, this test came back first and he comes to me and he says, well, I don't have herpees. So it looks like you're the one who has herpes, and thank god you didn't give it to me because I don't have it. So now of course I'm like, oh god, I have herpees? How did I get herpes? So then an hour or two later, my doctor calls me and he says, this is the craziest thing, Hallie, you do not have herpes. So I'm just like, thank you God, I don't have herpes. But I said, why
did you tell me I had herpes? Like what is this? And he said, I don't really know what this is, but this is not herpes, so you have nothing to worry about. Well I left there full of worry because one he wasn't able to tell me what it was, and it was one of the most painful things I ever experienced I had ever gone through. So that got me on this investigative journey of what is going on
with my body and why did this happen? And it didn't take me that long to figure out that this was a symptom of menopause, or in my case, perimenopause, when your estrogen starts to bottom out and many of your orifice become dry, your vagina, your eyes, and your mouth. I had the dry mouth. Also, one of another doctor tried to diagnose me with Chogren's disease, wanted to put me on steroids and take me down the path of having an autoimmune disease. Nope, it's just dry mouth. Your
mouth gets dry. I realized I needed to take Omega sevens with Buckhorn oils, stop red wine because the tannins and red wine can dry you out and up my vitamins, and boom, I got better. So this is the kind of research that I'm fighting for so that women can understand what is happening to their bodies. And don't let doctors who haven't even studied your body, who really knows nothing about what happens to us when that estrogen leaves our bodies. Don't let them start telling you what's wrong.
Start investigating on your own. That's what I did. That's how I got on this path, and I've been on that path ever since of self investigation, educating myself, talking to the doctors that do understand our bodies, who have studied I'm talking to other women who are in the same place. I am listening to things that they've tried
that have helped them, sharing my stories. That's what we have to do right now as women while we sit here waiting for the studies to be done, we have to start talking with each other about it because we are all in this together, every single one of us.
Okay, we have to take a quick break, but we'll be right back with more from Halle Berry. Stay with us, and we're back with Halle Berry.
Halle, congratulations on your new horror film. It's called Never Let Go. In it, you play the mother of two young boys, and y'all are isolated in a post apocalyptic world. But Halle, this is such a big deal because this is the first film that you've released with your new company, Halle Holly, So what did you see in this script that made it worthy of becoming your first release?
Well, first, I love this genre, you know, psychological thriller or slash horror. I love it. And when I read the script, it presented a world that I had never seen before, and certainly I haven't seen it with a black family, right, a black mother with her two black children. So the idea of as a mother giving birth to two children and for ten years, you never get to leave that house, you never get to leave those woods, and you are tethered to it by a rope in
order for your survival. Just exploded all the things for me, and I thought, Wow, I really need to get inside this story. I really need to unpack this. I really need to understand why this happened, what's happening, how would they survive? And the idea of it just wildly intrigued me, wildly intrigued me. And because it also deals with elements of generational trauma, it also had something that I felt
was very complicated and deep at its core. And I always like movies that leave me thinking deeply about something while I've had a great time and maybe I left, or I cried, or I was scared shitless. I love movies that leave me thinking, thinking about what I just saw, and sometimes even questioning what I just saw. And this, to me, did all of that. After I read the.
Script, I saw something that you posted on Instagram. So, thirty three years ago, Spike Lee gave you a breakout role in Jungle Fever as Viv and you said it basically gave you an opportunity to break out from the gorgeous girl roles. And you wrote that he looked past your exterior, and I was thinking about how you were the it girl before we even started using the term it girl. Now it's all over the place, and I'm curious what the blessing and the curse has been of being an it girl.
I do know that that stigma I felt like plagued me right and my first television role was playing a model in television, so I knew that I had work to do to sort of destigmatize myself and to get people to see me more clearly as an actor who I'd been studying, who was really wanting to not be put in that box. And the thing about Spike was he really first wanted me to play his wife you
know that girl part. And I went to the audition because I wanted to meet Spike, always knowing that once I got in the room, I was going to flip the script and try to fight for myself to have an opportunity to play the role that I really wanted to play. And so luckily, to his credit, he allowed me to do that and got to see a deeper side of who I was, where I got to rely on something than the exterior. And it was a wonderful opportunity and it was a wonderful way to start my
film career. And I'll never forget him for being able to see past that and to give me that chance, because it set me off down the right path.
When you think about all the sets you've been on, all the productions you've been a part of, what's the most fun you've ever had in entertainment?
You know that's hard because I always try to find the fun and everything that I'm doing, even on the sets that are less than perfect, shall we say yeah. I always try to find the people that are about the fun, the people that are about the joy, who realize that we're all blessed to be making movies, doing make believe as a career and getting paid to do it.
I always try to align myself with those people and try to stay away from the drama of at all the best I can, because I've also learned, once you do a movie, how that movie turns out and how people receive it has nothing to do with me. That's out of my control. What I can control is that experience of making the movie. So I try to control that as much as I possibly can, And I say,
this experience is all I have today. When this movie comes and goes, who knows what will happen, but this memory of this will be mine forever, right and this is making me me. This is the fabric of my life. It's happening right here. So let me make that the best possible version of itself I possibly can. And that's worked for me over the years.
That you find the fun, I actually find that to be very rare in entertainment because people take their jobs so seriously.
So I think that's really cool.
I know, and I don't. You have to laugh at yourself first, to be able to laugh at any situation and find, you know, the good in it. It's also silly. One day we're not going to be here. We're going to be in a blip, you know. And I really believe three months after we die, and then six months after we die, a year after we die, does anybody really care in any real way? You know, we just become someone who was but life goes on, and I have a real clear knowing of that.
So I'm thirty three, I'm very single, very single. And so you mentioned you found your person, and I feel like you've always been able to stay aligned for what's best for you throughout the highs and the lows. I'm wondering if you have any love advice for me at my big age of thirty three.
Well, I'm usually not the one to give any love advice. Like you know, that's a hot take that you're asking me for that. But what I will tell you is I have been able to stay true. And I think as women, what I think I would say to you, You're gonna make mistakes, You're gonna choose someone not right for you. But that's how we grow, That's how we learn what is right for us. That's how we become
better versions of ourselves. And what I would say is, if you find yourself in a situation that's not right for you, get out. Don't stays longer then you know in your heart you need to stay there. And I think as women, we have a hard time getting out of things because we fear the judgment. Oh how many is she gonna have? How many marriages? How many divorces? Like I don't care how many you have. Have the courage to get out, Have the courage to get out.
Never stay stuck. Don't stay for the children. No, children don't need to see a miserable mom who is settled in life. Children need to see an empowered, logged on boss mom that dares to put her feelings first so that she can be the best version of herself for her children. So whatever you do, don't stay stuck anywhere you don't want to be. Have the courage to do first, and you will find it. If it's meant for you right, and it will be found, You'll find it. I don't
think a relationship is then do'll be all. When I found man, I was so happy to be by myself. I said, I'm done with that. I'm just going to be solo and raised my children and have my career. And when I least expected it, when I finally was clear about who I was and what I would and wouldn't put up with in life and the path I was going down, that person showed up. But it's because I was not ready for that person to show up. Thank you for that.
I also, I asked you because you've lived, and I love a woman who's lived.
Oh yes, girl, I've lived and I'm still living. I have a whole act to do. Ies so excited about so excited to live that act? Yeah, what is that act?
Is it what you're already doing with Respin or is it something a dream that you haven't talked about yet.
Now it's my dream of Reespin. It's about, you know, empowering women through the second act of their lives, because that's where I'm at. So that's something that I know I can speak to authentically. I can fight for them because I'm fighting for myself and I think we've been so overlooked during this time of our lives. And I know that I'm just gearing up for the second act, and I want to walk through that in good health
the best I can. I want to be around to see my grandchildren, if my children so you know, desire to have children. I want to be here for all of it. But I don't want to be a burden to them. I want to be as healthy as I possibly can be. So that's my act, my second act.
We need to take another short break. We'll be right back. We're back with Halle Berry. Okay, Halle, you did say that you don't take things too seriously, so I'm going to ask you an unseerious question. This is the most unserious question you'll get all day. So you are an Oscar winner, of course, but you also deserve an Award for most number of shout outs and rap songs, because by my count, it's at least thirteen, Like I think it's actually way over that. I think that's an underestimate.
But I'm dying to know. How you learn about these references? Do you get a text from your friends like who are like, Hey, you got to listen to this new song? Do google yourself every now and then? How do you find out about these zeitgeist references?
Never googling myself? Okay, I don't know what might come up, and I don't want to even know. But sometimes people tell me. Sometimes I hear them on the radio or hear them and I go, oh my god, they just what. It's always so flattering and so amazing that, especially the younger generation, that they still consider me a part of their culture. You know what I mean in some way
because sometimes I feel so far past it. But it's nice to know that they still include me, and my kids still think I'm cool because they get to hear my names and song.
Do they really?
I feel like that's the ultimate feather in your cap when you get that head tip from the younger generation.
You know, my kids have no idea why they don't know why I'm cool. They don't know why I'm like why, like why they rap it? Why are they got you in the songs? Like they don't really understand that because they just see me like they don't get it. And that's like a big joke in our house because they're just like clueless. Oh my gosh, this is killing me.
This is so funny.
And then have you ever interacted with any of the artists who have included you in their songs? If you have, what have those interactions been?
Like, this isn't a rap song, But I had a really sweet one with Bruno Mars. He had me in one of his songs and he asked me to do a recording, like a telephone recording for one of his songs. And I was a big fan of his, so when he asked me to do that, I was really honored by that.
So wait, that's amazing.
Like Bruno Hallie, I think oftentimes our careers grow and evolve as we do as people, and I've observed that in your life for sure. I feel like we took a look back today. But in thinking ahead, what do you want your legacy to be? I?
You know, I don't know I don't often think about legacy. When you're so busy just doing your work, you don't really think about that. So that's an interesting question. I don't know if it'll if it will be my legacy, but what I hope people remember, because do know that I do believe it's just a blip and a very short period of time. We will not remember whatever I did here I think won't be that significant at all.
But while we're remembering, I hope that people just see me as someone who dared to live her life on her own terms, march to be to her own drum right and pave a way for herself and by doing take away for others. Like that's really how I have seen my career. And I've taken big risks, I've won big I've lost, but I continue to stay relevant throughout all the years. I hope that will be the legacy that you know, that girl just kept going, she kept
doing her thing her way, on her terms. That's what I hope they say.
That's beautiful.
Thank you, We really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much, Hallie, You're the best.
Thank you, Thank you guys, having a beautiful day.
Halle Berry is a director and Academy Award winning actor. Her new movie Never Let Go, is in theaters tomorrow, September twentieth.
That's it for today's show.
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