Halle Berry Had One Big Stipulation Before Agreeing To X-Men 3
Bryan Singer's "X2: X-Men United" may remain, even at this late date, one of the better superhero films out there. In "X2," Halle Berry reprised her role as Ororo Munroe, better known by her superheroine name Storm. She can control the weather with her mind, perhaps making her the most powerful being on Earth, even if the movies don't posit her as such. In "X2," Storm spends a good deal of time tracking down and befriending a mysterious teleporting blue-skinned mutant named Kurt (Alan Cumming), also known as Nightcrawler. The two characters bond and they have a few intimate moments together.
This was an improvement for Storm over the 2000 "X-Men" film, wherein she ... didn't do much. Storm was a supporting character in "X-Men" who only used her superpowers a few times. Berry was fine, but was given very little to work with. Storm, despite being one of the more consistently ubiquitous X-Men characters in comic book form (the character was introduced in 1975), remained off to the side in Singer's first two X-Men movies.
Storm also appeared in Brett Ratner's 2006 film "X-Men: The Last Stand," and in it, she gets to use her powers a little more. Significantly, some dramatic events throughout "The Last Stand" leave Storm as the headmistress of Charles Xavier's school for Mutants at the film's end. It's worth noting that "The Last Stand" was even busier than the previous two movies, as it introduced over a dozen new characters, fast-forwarded the film's timeline to a wilder, semi-dystopian near-future, and dealt with worldwide consequences of superpowered mutants being known to the world at large.
In a 2005 article for Digital Spy, Berry revealed that she would only come back to play Storm for "The Last Stand" if the character played a more substantial role. The studio listened, at least to a degree.
Stormy weather
Alternate dystopian futures are easy to accept over the course of several years of comic book mythmaking, but in a single feature film, the new setting and the many new chartacters made "The Last Stand" feel busy. Storm, as a result, played only a small part in the story again ... just like every other character. There just wasn't a lot of time in the 104-minute movie to give everyone space.
Berry, however, seems to have been ultimately satisfied, as she had only agreed to appear in the film if the studio gave her a more significant role. She was quoted as saying:
"I have not read the script. All I asked is that, if I come back, Storm needs more to do. If they have, in fact, written her closer to the comic book, then I'm in. If not, then I'm out. I hope I'm in though. I love Storm and really want to be a part of the last film."
As mentioned, she did end the film as the leader of the X-Men and the headmistress of the franchise's central superhero academy. That might have been enough.
But it wasn't. It was later revealed, however, that the script Berry agreed to was an infamous "bait" script. The studio provided the actress with a script that gave Storm a great deal to do with no intention of actually putting that particular draft into production. Berry arrived on set and they handed her the earlier version of "The Last Stand" that she hadn't agreed to. Having already signed her contract, however, Berry was trapped. The studio's hoodwinking ultimately drove the film's original director, Matthew Vaughn, to quit. Brett Ratner took over, and the rest is history.
Definitely of note: everyone hated "X-Men: The Last Stand."