Halle Berry Sued By MMA Fighter Cat Zingano After Retracting 'Bruised' Offer: Report

Halle Berry is facing a legal battle over her movie "Bruised," a report has revealed.

MMA star Cat Zingano filed a lawsuit against Berry after the latter offered her a role in the action movie, causing her to pass up a key UFC fight, but she was later dropped from the project.

In the documents obtained by Variety, Zingano claimed that Berry asked her to appear in the film when they met in July 2019. The "Kidnap" actress reportedly noted the parallels between the script and Zingano's personal story. A week later, the American mixed martial artist got an offer for a UFC fight in October 2019 that would have put her in contention for a title fight. Berry allegedly told her that she could not do both for insurance reasons, so she had to choose.

"Zingano was torn between the significantly valuable career-advancing opportunity to fight for title contention, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved with Defendant Berry in a feature film about a character whose story so closely mirrored Zingano’s own life story," the lawsuit read.

Zingano eventually rejected the fight to participate in Berry's movie. But two weeks later, she was told that only UFC fighters could participate. Zingano is no longer a member of UFC. The MMA promotion company released her in August 2019 after seven fights. Berry allegedly cut ties with Zingano after dropping her from the film.

Zingano noted that she relied on Berry's promise to include her in the film that was why she turned down the UFC fight and is claiming "promissory estoppel."

Berry is making her directorial debut in the film. She also stars as an MMA fighter and a single mom in the movie. She was offered close to $20 million by streaming giant Netflix for the worldwide distribution rights and for playing the lead, according to Variety. She confirmed the news in September 2020.

"I am speechless. Thank you @netflix for believing in my vision, cannot wait for y’all to finally see #BruisedTheMovie," she wrote on Twitter.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 54-year-old actress said she broke two ribs on the first day of filming "Bruised." She also shared that they did not have a huge budget for the movie.

"I told the [John Wick] director about it, they told the insurance. We had to shut down for months and it was a big ordeal," Berry told EW about the incident. "On ["Bruised"], because it was an independent movie, we didn't have a big budget. The director in me said, 'I didn't come this far and work this hard to go home."