The movie may have undergone a very surprising reappraisal recently after the internet decided in its infinite wisdom that Halle Berry’s Catwoman wasn’t an unmitigated disaster, but a misunderstood and unsung camp cult classic.
The star herself even weighed in, asking where all these people were back in 2004 when the comic book blockbuster flopped hard at the box office after failing to recoup the $100 million budget, and yet still reigned as the highest-grossing superhero movie with a female lead for thirteen years until Wonder Woman came along.
Ever the good sport, Berry showed up in person at the Razzies to collect her trophy for Worst Actress, where she mocked the tearful speech she gave when collecting her Oscar for Monster’s Ball, and made sure to thank her agent for casting her in film she described as a “piece of sh*t”. Speaking to Vanity Fair, the actress and filmmaker explained why she wanted to show face at the ceremony celebrating the worst Hollywood has to offer.
“Well, I went to the Razzies because, you know, I feel like… we all take ourselves so seriously, if we get an award, if we get the Oscar, we somehow are made to feel like we’re somehow better than everybody else, but we’re really not. You know, you were just chosen that year by your peers and you were acknowledged for doing what they considered stellar work, but are you better than the next person who didn’t get that award? No, not at all. So if you find yourself face to face with a Razzie, does that mean you’re the worst actor there ever was?
Probably not, you just got the piss taken out on you that year by a group of people that can. I decided to just take it all in jest, not take myself too seriously, and if I can show up to collect an Oscar when you’re honoring me, I can certainly show up to collect a Razzie when you say, ‘Good try, but do better.’ I always learned that if you can’t be a good loser, then you don’t deserve to be a good winner, so I went there, made fun of myself, I had a great time… and then I set that thing on fire!”
Berry has since revealed that she’d love to direct a remake of Catwoman to give it a do-over, now that she’s dipped her toes in the filmmaking waters with Netflix’s popular and well-received MMA drama Bruised. Whether that happens or not, she’s more than game to poke fun at her disastrous flirtation with the role.