One Hot Mama!

The kidnap star shares the joy of raising her 2 kids, facing her fears and finding happiness on her own as she turns 51.

- Jess Cagle

For her new high-octane thriller Kidnap, Halle Berry tapped a skill she’s been honing for years: letting loose her inner mama bear and taking the driver’s seat (in this case, literally) to protect her child at all costs. “A regular, ordinary mom finds the superhero inside herself and saves the day,” says Berry. “At the end you feel like, ‘Wow...don’t mess with Mom!’ That could be a real-life mantra for the Oscar winner and age-defying single mother to Nahla, 9, and Maceo, 3, her kids with exes Gabriel Aubry and Olivier Martinez, respectively. Now happier than ever, Berry, who turns 51 on Aug. 14, opens up about her journey to People’s editor-in-chief in the latest episode of The Jess Cagle Interview.

In Kidnap, your character sees her child snatched right before her eyes. 

[It’s] every mother’s nightmare. . . . Like every red-blooded mother or parent, she just starts moving off instinct, chases this car [and] cannot episode of The Jess Cagle Interview, stop until she has saved her son.