Moonfall Interview: Halle Berry on Working With Roland Emmerich, Her Favorite Scenes

February 7, 2022

Lionsgate’s Moonfall is now playing in theaters. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Oscar-winner Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson (Midway, The Conjuring films), and John Bradley (Game of Thrones).

“In the film, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it hurtling on a collision course with life as we know it,” reads the synopsis. “With mere weeks before impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler is convinced she has the key to saving us all – but only one astronaut from her past, Brian Harper and a conspiracy theorist K.C. Houseman believes her. These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find out that our Moon is not what we think it is.

ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim spoke with Moonfall star Halle Berry about her character, favorite scenes in the film, and how Storm would deal with the moon falling.

Jonathan Sim: When you first looked at Moonfall, what made you want to be a part of this movie and take on the character of Jo Fowler?

Halle Berry: Well, one I’ve always loved Roland Emmerich. I love his bigger-than-life spectacle movies. You know, I think there’s always a place for a movie like that. I think they’re always crowd-pleasers and people love these kinds of movies. So that’s one reason. I had played an astronaut before on a television show, and I had done a lot of research. And so this would give me a chance to sort of rely on that research again and go back into a world that I loved so much from before. I loved also that Roland was taking this character that was written as a man, the head of NASA, and he was daring to make it a black woman. I love whenever filmmakers get bold like that, and allow us, as women, you know, find some equality and allow us to be real participants in that way. That was exciting for me.

You definitely do a great job portraying this character. Now you’ve had an incredible career behind you spanning decades. Besides Fowler, which character, out of all the ones that you have played, do you think would be the best at stopping the moon from hurtling towards Earth?

I would say Storm. She could muster up her powers of being able to control the environment, and I think she could muster up some kind of wind or gust of something to stop the moon from actually crashing into their Earth.

Now as for this movie, of course, this is a movie filled with all of these special effects. What would you say was your favorite scene to see translated from the set of the movie to the big screen?

There are so many, but I would say when the big wave comes and takes over. I think that’s something that we didn’t really understand what that would look like. But also going inside the moon, what that would actually look like to be inside of that structure, what would Roland’s imagination have that be? I think that was something, it was really nice for me to see.

Jonathan Sim is a film critic and filmmaker born and raised in New York City. He is a member of the Critics Choice Association and Hollywood Creative Alliance, and has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Newsweek, and Radio Times.

He has met/interviewed some of the leading figures in Hollywood, including Christopher Nolan, Zendaya, Liam Neeson, and Denis Villeneueve. He also works as a screenwriter, director, and producer on independent short films.