Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball (2001) romance scene
Halle Berry made history when she became the first Black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for her role as Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball. If you haven't seen this film, you probably still know it (or heard of it) not only for Berry's groundbreaking performance, but because of the steamy love scene between her and Billy Bob Thornton.
In a 2020 interview with Variety, Berry revealed how her team didn't want her to take the role of Leticia Musgrove and thought filming the love scene with Thornton would ruin her career. "[The love scene] was explicit in the minds of some people, and I was getting paid nothing. They thought if you're going to do something like that, get a shitload of money."
But after ignoring her team, Berry focused on the integrity of her character and the meaning behind filming her love scene with Thornton: "[Money's] not why I'm doing it. I didn't feel it was exploitative. It was necessary for the character."
