The actress went all in for her role in 'John Wick: Chapter 3.'
Halle Berry is a "badass female" -- and she knows it.
ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with the actress at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday, where she opened up about embracing her inner action star for John Wick: Chapter 3 -- Parabellum. As Berry explained, she couldn't have been more excited to bring her fierce new character to life; getting in the "best shape" of her life at 52 was an added bonus.
"[Director] Chad [Stahelski] got me in the best shape of my life, so why not show it?" she asked, teasing her sexy Instagram photos. "These guys worked me so hard. I never worked so hard in my whole life for this little character in this movie."
"I've never been in the best shape of my life mentally, physically, and it's all because I got to work with some of the best of the best," she added. "So there are wonderful benefits of that."
Berry joins the action franchise as Sofia, an assassin and a close friend of John Wick (Keanu Reeves) -- who is still on the run with a $14 million global contract on him after killing Santino D'Antonio in the Continental in John Wick 2.
"I'm a John Wick fan, and I heard [Stahelski] was looking to cast a badass female who could fight, so I went to his office and I said, 'I think it should be me,'" she recalled -- though Stahelski quickly jumped in with his version of the story.
"You didn't say you think. You said, 'It will be me.' I couldn't kick her out of the office!" he said. "[And when that happens], you jump up and down and say, 'OK. Absolutely!'"
The stuntman and director called the actress "dedicated, committed and unrelenting." "She wore out two stunt teams!" he joked.
"She doesn't quit, ever. And [she] cares like you wouldn't believe. Passion -- you want it, you'll get it," Stahelski said of Berry.
The Oscar winner was equally complimentary of Stahelski, praising him for helping her make her own transition into the director's chair.
"He's a great director. Nobody knows action better than Chad. He has sort of redefined, in my opinion, and in many people's opinion, what the action movie is all about. It's real live action, real people doing real things which real people can relate to. He's redefined that and because he is an action star himself, he understands what you, on the other side of the camera, go through. He understands the commitment, the training, the time that it takes," she raved. "He's a very benevolent director."
John Wick: Chapter 3 -- Parabellum hits theaters on May 17.
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