In “Die Another Day,” Jinx gets a classic introduction when her bikini-clad figure emerges from the ocean — à la Ursula Andress’ Honey Ryder in the movie that kicked off the franchise, 1962’s “Dr. No.” But shooting a scene like this was a lot tougher than the footage would suggest, as the production was hampered by what producer Michael G. Wilson called “one of the worst series of storms on record” while filming in Spain. A behind-the-scenes featurette shows Halle Berry under an umbrella wrapped in a towel between takes, having to perform scenes in her scant swimwear during the height of the adverse weather. And that was just the start.
A 2002 Telegraph report detailed how the actress was injured after “a piece of debris from a smoke grenade flew into [her] left eye.” Berry then had to undergo a 30-minute operation to have the fragment removed. As if risking hypothermia and her own eyesight wasn’t enough, there was more to come.
In Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman’s book, “Nobody Does It Better,” Berry recalled how she “was comfortable with most of the action scenes,” but there was one stunt that proved too much:
“Pierce and I had to run alongside a moving plane before hauling ourselves up into the wheel bay. It was only going about 15 miles an hour and I was sure I could cope with that. But you don’t realize how fast that is when you’re trying to catch a moving plane. By the fourth or fifth take, I was exhausted. Pierce did it effortlessly, but even though my legs were running, I was going nowhere.”
Considering she’d already almost lost an eye and been asked to act in the eye of a storm, I’m frankly not surprised she collapsed.