Halle Berry makes her directorial debut with the release of the new movie Bruised, which sees the actress starring as a disgraced MMA fighter who gets back into the ring after her infant son becomes a part of her life again. Berry wanted a powerful roster of women to tackle the soundtrack for the movie, and she enlisted Cardi B to record the original song “Bet It” and co-executive-produce the body of work.
In an interview with Billboard News published Thursday (Nov. 17), Berry and Cardi sat down to discuss what it was like working together on the movie.
“When I thought of what would be the voice that would be the pinnacle of what this soundtrack could be, of course I thought of the queen. Like who wouldn’t want to have a Cardi B song and have her voice and have her talents on their debut?” Berry said.
Cardi was stunned: “I was like ‘Oh my gosh, is this happening? Is this the real Halle Berry? She knows me, she likes me, she loves me!’”
Unfortunately, the recording process for Cardi’s song, “Bet It,” was not seamless. Berry revealed that there were copyright issues with the track that affected its ability to get cleared, but Cardi fought for the song’s inclusion on the soundtrack.
“Cardi, you came through in a big way. We had some issues with our song, we had to get certain rights to use it,” Berry explained. “Cardi, being so of her word, didn’t say, ‘Oh, it can’t happen.’ She went the extra mile and you made sure that we got the rights to use the record. I can say, honestly, not everybody would have done that, and I so respect you. You said yes, and you stood by your word.”
City Girls, H.E.R., Saweetie and Baby Tate all feature on the upcoming Bruised soundtrack too, in addition to several other female musicians. City Girls’ “Scared” and Baby Tate’s “Dungarees” are the first two songs available from the soundtrack.
Cardi has been slowly making her foray into the film industry, and she gave fans an idea of what to expect from her upcoming movie, Assisted Living, where she’ll star as a grandmother. “It’s gonna be a funny movie, but it’s not gonna be cheesy. I feel like a lot of movies sometimes can be translated into cheesy and corny. I gotta do prosthetics all day,” she told Billboard News.
Berry shared that she’s confident in Cardi’s acting abilities and told her some kind words before concluding their interview. “She’s gonna do great. I think you’re naturally funny, and I think you’re naturally honest and sincere, and that’s what acting is. People think acting is lying, but it’s really telling the truth. It’s being vulnerable enough to tell the truth of the situation and you’re always 100 [percent] truthful,” she said.
Even though they’ve finally teamed up, Berry is sad she missed out on being part of one of Cardi’s biggest hits. “If I could have been in ‘WAP,’ that would’ve been great,” Berry laughed about Cardi’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 team-up with Megan Thee Stallion. “How come you didn’t ask me, Cardi? You should’ve asked me to be in ‘WAP’!” Cardi pinned it all on her collaborator: “I’m gonna blame Megan. Yeah. I’m gonna always blame Megan.”
Watch the interview in full above.
