Halle Berry unfazed by unscripted line about her age in Crime 101

Halle Berry was unfazed by an unscripted line about her age in her new movie Crime 101.

In the old-fashioned crime thriller, the Oscar-winning actress plays a high-end insurance broker named Sharon, who gets caught up in a chase between a detective and a jewellery thief.

Sharon has essentially been used for her looks, with her male bosses using her as bait to entice wealthy clients, and she has become less valuable to her firm as she's aged.

During an interview with The Times, Berry recalled how one of her co-stars surprised her with an unscripted line targeting her character's age, and director Bart Layton wondered if he'd gone too far.

"(Layton) told the actor to p**s me off. They thought they were gonna really shock me by calling me 53, because that should make me feel bad about myself," she recalled. "Afterwards the director asked me if he had gone too far. I was like, 'He actually made me younger than I am.' It didn't matter to me at all."

The Monster's Ball actress, who turns 60 in August, explained that she was attracted to the part because she knows what it feels like to have the cards stacked against her as an ageing woman.

"What initially spoke to me (about the role) is I'm at this phase of my life. It's a privilege to age but it's been so stigmatised, especially for women. If they talked about men's ages too, fair game. But they don't. It stacks the cards against us," she stated.

"I don't know how old these male actors are because their age doesn't precede their name. With us, it always does. Soon it will be '60-year-old Halle Berry.'"

Crime 101, which also stars Mark Ruffalo and Monica Barbaro, will be released in cinemas on 13 February.