Halle Berry has opened up about the behind-the-scenes drama of X-Men 3, telling fans: ‘Ya just never know the shady s**t going on behind ya back!’
The film, titled X-Men: The Last Stand, saw Halle, 58, star as Ororo Monroe, better known as Storm, was released in 2006 and featured high-profile actors, including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
But despite its box office success, grossing approximately $459 million (£349.8m) worldwide, a new video Halle shared has revealed some behind-the-scenes drama.
In a short clip posted to X, a snippet from New YorkComic Con last October shows Matthew Vaughn, 53, the film’s original director, opening up about the shocking reason he decided to quit the film.
He told fans that one of the main reasons he quit the blockbuster was that he uncovered the Fox executives’ plot to get Halle to sign on by giving her a fake script.
‘I don’t care if I’m not meant to say it,’ he started. ‘Hollywood is really political and odd, and I went into one of the executive’s offices, and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew, because it was a lot fatter, I was like “What the hell’s this draft?”’
He continued to claim the unnamed executive wouldn’t show him the script, which resulted in Matthew ‘grabbing’ it only to find it was completely different from the film script he had been given.
‘I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said, “Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children” – I thought it was a pretty cool idea.’
However, when he asked what the script was for, he alleged he was told it was a fake.
‘They went: “Ah, it’s the Halle Berry script because she hasn’t signed up yet. But once she, this is what she wants it to be and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin.”’ He claimed.
Matthew recalled how astonished he was by the bold act and, at that moment, decided X3 wasn’t a film he wanted to be a part of: ‘I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I’m out of here. I quit at that point. I thought, I’m mincemeat.’
Halle responded to the clip by posting it on X and writing: ‘Ya just never know the shady s**t going on behind ya back! Thank you Matthew Vaughn for bringing the dark to light’.
Fans were quick to respond to the revelation with some admitting the film would be been stronger if the alleged fake scene had taken place.
Notcapnamerica wrote: ‘That scene would’ve been awesome, that movie needed all the help it could get.’
Others praised Matthew for standing up to the executives. WittyWordly tweeted: ‘Wow this is crazy. Shout out to Matthew for standing up and doing the right thing.’
Elsewhere, fans felt like the comments were the perfect spark for a Storm film, with _albei commenting: ‘@halleberry I’m ready for a Storm movie!!!!! @Disney @MarvelStudios it’s time!!!!’
Yonsofficial added: ‘We’ve long needed a solo Storm movie, this should light the fire.’
Matthew was replaced by Brett Ratner on the late 00s film, but his days of working with Halle weren’t over. They later reunited in 2014 while working on Kingsman: The Golden Circle.