As a long-time gamer and comic book fan, I have always been intrigued by the representation of female superheroes on the big screen. And when Halle Berry was cast as Catwoman in the 2004 film adaptation, I was thrilled to see a strong female character taking center stage. However, my excitement was soon dampened when I learned that the storyline revolved around saving women from a toxic face cream.
In 2004, I was captivated by “Catwoman,” a film that brought Halle Berry to life as DC’s seductive feline anti-heroine. This origin story explored themes related to the dark side of the beauty industry. Berry played Patience Phillips, an artist with a quiet demeanor, who was transformed into a powerful cat after an unfortunate encounter with Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), the CEO of a cosmetics company.
After portraying Marvel’s character Storm, the weather-controlling mutant in the Fox-produced “X-Men” films, Berry was displeased that her initial superhero solo project amounted to primarily rescuing women from malevolent skincare antagonists. (Or, following Storm’s role in the X-Men movies produced by Fox, Berry expressed her dissatisfaction with her debut superheroine venture reducing mainly to saving women from villainous figures in the skincare industry.)
In her interview with EW, Berry expressed her initial doubt about Catwoman’s role of rescuing women from using harsh face creams. She felt that this was a weaker version of what superheroes typically do, which is saving the world. At that point in her career, she lacked the confidence and agency to challenge this perspective, so she went ahead with it.
John Brancato, the screenwriter, expressed that there were aspects in our early script that he found captivating. One of these elements was the portrayal of women and the pressure to always look beautiful and wear makeup. Patience opposed this notion and felt like she failed as a woman due to her lack of adherence to these standards. However, during production, the social commentary on how this beauty culture harms its consumers became less pronounced, which was initially intriguing for Brancato. Despite being a beauty company, it no longer carried the edge of exposing the harmful nature of such cultural expectations.
Patience and Laurel were born from a screenplay initially meant to create a more raw and affordable backstory for French director Pitof. However, as producer Denise Di Novi looked back, the project grew into something larger. It underwent numerous transformations, eventually becoming a self-contained film rather than an addition to the Batman series (with Batman Begins in development at Warner Bros. by Christopher Nolan).
“Brancato noted that from the initial phone call, there were strict guidelines given to us: ‘It’s forbidden to bring up Batman.’ This was an unwavering condition, a corporate decison from Warner Bros. to distinguish this project from the Batman franchise.”
Berry expressed her joy in working on a project outside the “Batman” franchise. She continued, “It was refreshing not to be bound by those established rules. This venture represented progress for women in media, allowing us to create our own superhero story and world.”
Di Novi stated that there was significant prejudice towards women in the decision to introduce the first live-action appearance of Catwoman since Michelle Pfeiffer portrayed her in “Batman Returns” (1992) as an independent female character. She advocated for a feminist narrative, but the studio may have been hesitant due to the absence of a male lead character.
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2024-07-19 03:09