Halle Berry has denied that she was cast in Gigli before Jennifer Lopez.

The Oscar-winning actress has clarified reports that she was initially cast in the 2003 box office flop alongside Ben Affleck before being replaced by Lopez.

“That’s not true, hell no… let me tell you what happened, here’s the tea,” she said on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast. “I’m up for the part, so is Jennifer. We both go meet (director Martin) Brest, so we both have a meeting around it. I think I really want it, I want to work with Marty Brest, I want to work with Ben. I go but Ben decides that he wants Jen so I don’t get the job. I wasn’t cast; I don’t get it. She gets it. She beat me out for the job.”

Berry jokingly noted that she dodged a bullet by not getting the misfire, adding, “Boy, I’m glad she did. I might not be sitting here right now.”

The Swordfish star also acknowledged that the casting decision might have made for more personal reasons, considering Lopez and Affleck began dating after meeting on the movie set.

“I now I realise why she got the job, I realise what was at play there,” she stated.

Lopez and Affleck, who also worked on the 2004 film Jersey Girl, originally dated between 2002 and 2004. They rekindled their relationship many years later in 2021 and got married the following year.

After months of split speculation, she filed for divorce in August.

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