Halle Berry thanks director who quit X-Men film over studio’s ‘shady’ way of making her play Storm

‘Thank you Matthew Vaughn for bringing the dark to light,’ said the Oscar winning actor

Halle Berry has spoken out on the “shady s***” going on behind her back after discovering that she was tricked into reprising her role as Storm in X-Men: The Last Stand.

The 2006 film, directed by Brett Ratner, was the final in the original trilogy of X-Men movies following on from 2000’s X-Men and 2003’s X2. Berry had played the weather controlling mutant in the first two films.

In 2023, Matthew Vaughn, who was originally set to direct the film, said the reason he quit the project stemmed from the discovery of the supposed manner in which distributor 20th Century Fox recruited Berry into signing onto the sequel.

According to the director, whose other credits include Kick-Ass and the Kingsman films, Berry was allegedly lured into starring in X-Men: The Last Stand using a fake script that prioritised her character in the opening scene.

Speaking at the New York Comic-Con, Vaughn told the audience: “This is a true story and I don’t care if I’m not meant to say it. Hollywood is really political and odd. I went to an executive’s office and I saw an X3 script. It was a lot fatter. I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

“So I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.’ I thought it was a pretty cool idea.”

Vaughn continued: “I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is the Halle Berry’s script because she hasn’t signed on yet. This is what she wants it to be. And once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.’

“I thought, ‘If you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit.’”

Matthew Vaughn and Halle Berry in ‘X-Men’ (Getty Images / Fox)

Berry did star in the film but appeared oblivious to the tactic that was deployed to get her to feature in it.

After learning about Vaughn’s claims, the John Wick actor shared a TikTok about the revelation on 5 October, adding: “Ya just never know the shady shit going on behind ya back! Thank you Matthew Vaughn for bringing the dark to light”

Vaughn went on to direct Stardust instead of X-Men: The Last Stand, but directed X-Men: First Class in 2011.

Berry returned as Storm in X-Men: Days of Future Past, which was directed by Bryan Singer, in 2014.