Angelina Jolie is quietly building up her social circle at long last, as we’ve been reporting – with the latest recruit none other than fellow Hollywood queen Halle Berry!
“Halle is Angelina’s first new A-list friend in several years. They really do get along,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “It’s a credit to Halle that she made sure they could stay close buddies even after they stopped working with each other every day [on their recently shot film Maude V. Maude].”
Angelina, 49, and Halle, 58, teamed up for the first time in their nearly 30-year careers for the film Maude v Maude, which is described as a “‘Bond vs. Bourne’ type of global action thriller,” according to Deadline.
The film was directed by Roseanne Liang, with both Angelina and Halle playing major roles on the producing team. Although specific plot details remain under wraps, Warner Brothers secured the rights to the film in April 2023 following a competitive multi-studio bidding war. The film has yet to announce a release date.
The source says that the X-Men actress doesn’t “often” remain close friends with costars, adding, “Like Angelina, she’s never had a ton of friends who are actors on her same level.”
“But she and Angelina have had very similar lives — they even won their Oscars within two years of each other. And by the way, both of them want a second Oscar and they’ve vowed to support each other in that quest too,” the insider explains. “But more importantly than that, they’re both survivors, with more than 70 years of high level showbiz experience between them. It took a while, but they really understand each other and have each other’s backs.”
Halle famously told Variety in December 2023 that her relationship with the Salt actress on set had a “rocky start,” which the insider speculated Angelina must’ve “hated” to hear “publicly.”
“I think that is going to serve us well in our screen time together,” Halle told the outlet of the film where she battled Angelina “physically and intellectually.”
The Perfect Stranger actress added that she was “thrilled to work with another woman and craft a story with our sensibility and from our point of view. She is formidable.”
Although Halle declined to elaborate on the complicated start of their relationship, joking that it’s a “good” story, she said the pair eventually grew a friendship out of their common interests.
“We’ve been talking a lot about divorces and exes,” she explained. “We bonded, let’s say that.”
In addition, Halle spoke about traveling to Saudi Arabia to assist in scouting locations to shoot the upcoming film. “Warner Bros. bought our screenplay and, for us, it is going places that have never been shown on screen before,” she told the outlet. “We plan on going all around the world.”
Halle’s last appearance on screen was in the 2022 film Moonfall. Meanwhile, Angelina has appeared in a long list of productions including the Maria Callas biopic Maria, Maleficent 3 and Kung Fu Panda 4.
