Here’s Why Halle Berry Turned Down Sandra Bullock’s Iconic ‘Speed’ Role
The 1994 film Speed was almost a completely different movie as leading lady Sandra Bullock, who played the role of Annie Porter, wasn’t the first choice for the character.
During an exclusive sit down with Ben Aaron of Entertainment Tonight, Halle Berry revealed that she was offered the role of Annie before Bullock.
“I stupidly said no. But in my defense, when I read the script the bus didn’t leave the parking lot,” she said as she explained her decision to turn down the movie.
While Berry admits to kicking herself for turning down the position after she watched the iconic film, she doesn’t have any festering regret over her decision.
“They were offering me the parking lot version,” she added.
For those who are unfamiliar with the film from the early ’90s, it also starred Keanu Reeves as a young police officer named Jack Traven. The action thriller tells the story of Officer Traven who finds himself on a city bus with the task of maintaining a speed of 50 mph to keep the bomb attached from exploding.
Twenty-five years later, Halle was offered another opportunity to co-star with Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Unlike with the film Speed, Berry admits to begging director Chad Stahelski for the role of hired assassin Sofia in John Wick 3.
The Oscar-winning actress admits she had intensive training sessions five days a week for six months to prepare for the film. She was also required to learn martial arts. She even spent time training and becoming familiar with her canine co-stars.
“I worked with these dogs a lot so they could get to know me and I could get to know them. And I could command them on the day and wrangle them a little bit if things went crazy,” she said as she explained the importance of training with the dogs.
See why Halle Berry claims she turned down THIS Sandra Bullock flick: https://t.co/GpiGk7al1K
— TooFab (@TooFab) May 1, 2019
As her 5 million Instagram followers know, Berry frequently shared photos and video clips of herself rocking skintight tank tops and leggings as she hit the gym to prepare for her John Wick role.
During the conversation with Entertainment Tonight, Berry recalled a scene from the film where she and Reeves took down more than a dozen men while standing together on a rug in the office.
She said she experienced a real wave of emotion that transitioned from being unsure of how they would take out all the men without knocking each other in the process to a star-studded “holy s**t” moment as she realized she just kicked butt with Keanu by her side.
“I was so amped. That was the moment that it hit me that I was working with Keanu and I was a part of this this franchise that I had loved so long.”
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum starring Berry and Reeves has a theatrical release date that is just a few weeks away on May 17.
