Halle Berry had advice for some Atlantic City kids who got to visit the set of her movie Tuesday.
“Don’t let anybody get you off your plan and tell you you can’t,” she said as she spoke with a group of kids in James Whelan Boardwalk Hall.
The one-time home of the Miss America Pageant is now the setting of “Bruised,” the Oscar-winners directorial debut.
Berry said she hasn’t seen much more of Atlantic City than her room at Ocean Resort and the hall, which now hosts a MMA ring where Berry — as Jackie Justice — is the underdog facing off against “Lady Killer,” played by real-life fighter Valentina Shevchenko.
“This role totally fit me, that’s why I fought so hard to do it,” Berry told a group of reporters. “Being a woman of color, I have never had an easy path. There’s been so many things in my life that I’ve wanted that have been incredibly hard.”
But she kept fighting, she told the kids.
“Whatever dream you’re dreaming, even if you think it’s not possible, it is possible,” Berry told them.
The message touched Heaven Dunston, who got a long hug and some extra words of wisdom from Berry.
The Stockton University freshman got emotional as she talked about what the actress had told her.
“She said that anything you can believe in, you can do,” Dunston said, holding back tears. “Failure is you not getting back up. That was something I really needed to hear from a person like her.”
Dunston’s mother, LaToya Dunston, brought several of her Xclusive Drill Team members after receiving an invitation from CRDA Executive Director Matt Doherty.
“This was everything,” the elder Dunston said.
Berry’s story of fighting for her place in Hollywood and in getting the movie off the ground is the story of Atlantic City, said Mayor Marty Small.
“We’re a very resilient town, our residents, our businesses,” he said. “We’ve been counted out multiple times … but we just keep coming back. The fact that she picked Boardwalk Hall over Madison Square Garden speaks volumes.”
