Halle Berry To Play a 1930s Jew
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
She’s been a Bond girl and a superhero, and now Halle Berry’s set for a very different type of role: “a Jewish woman in the 1930s,” the Oscar winner says in Tuesday’s New York Times.
Little else is known about the role, one of several Berry will play in “Cloud Atlas,” a big-budget drama about “characters in six eras who might share a soul migrating through time.” Berry’s co-stars will include Tom Hanks, and the directors include Tom Tykwer, the German filmmaker behind “Run Lola Run.”
The Shmooze hopes the movie will help the comeback efforts of Berry, who’s basically had an off-decade since winning an Oscar in 2002 for “Monster’s Ball.” We’re also curious about what sort of directorial advice Berry will receive for the Jewish part. In a separate article over the weekend, the Times revealed that non-Jewish actor Viggo Mortensen, currently starring as Sigmund Freud in “A Dangerous Method,” needed help in mastering the part.
“You’re not walking like a Jew,” director David Cronenberg recalled telling him. “[Mortensen] had this kind of rangy, athletic thing going on.”
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
