Halle Berry on Her “Mind-Boggling” Experience as a Cannes Film Festival Juror, Adapting to Its New Dress Code, and Her Definition of Beauty

As the Cannes Film Festival 2025 nears its close, Academy Award–winning actor Halle Berry is reflecting on her first time as a juror for the 78th installment of the international film festival.

“I’ve learned so much listening to all [the jurors] talk and speak, and they’ve been so generous with their knowledge and with their heart,” she recently told Vanity Fair amid a busy schedule of appearing at photocalls, watching films, and attending events around the Croisette. “Just like on a movie set you get really close with your costars because you know you have to, your time is very limited and finite, and so we’ve also gotten very close very quickly because we’re talking about things that affect us deeply, and we’re sharing our own personal experiences with the movies and the art and the cinema. It’s just been one of the most life-enriching experiences I think I’ve ever had.”

This year’s jury president is Juliette Binoche, and Berry is joined by fellow jurors Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas, and Jeremy Strong. After viewing all of the films entered into competition, the group will decide upon the festival’s biggest honor: the Palme d’Or. Recipients of the coveted award in recent years include Anora director Sean Baker, Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet, and Triangle of Sadness director Ruben Östlund.

In advance of the Palme d’Or ceremony on Saturday, May 24 (the last day of the festival), Berry spoke with Vanity Fair about her experience as a first-time juror, the secret behind her skincare routine, and how she handled the changes to the Cannes Film Festival’s dress code.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Vanity Fair: Hi, Halle, how are you?

Halle Berry: I’m tired. I am exhausted. I feel great.

Tell me about your beauty routine and what it’s been like while attending Cannes.

My preparation is kind of like what it is normally when I work on a movie set. My skincare is more on point than usual and it’s always a big part of my routine. I really believe you have to start that early in life and it has to become part of your every day. You can’t turn back the hands of time, you have to start it early and be continuous and serious about it. So that part hasn’t been very different for me. Just taking care of my skin, giving my makeup artist a clean, good canvas to work with—healthy skin, clean skin, clear skin. It’s just been about moisturizing, cleaning, cleansing, exfoliating, and not wearing makeup whenever I don’t have to, which has been a real gift. When I go to my jury screenings, we don’t have to be made up, we can roll in however we roll in, and I’ve really been taking advantage of those times where I can just have clean skin and not have to have makeup on.

You’re a spokesperson for Alastin Skincare. Do you have any favorite go-to products?

I do! This is a new brand that I’ve just tried recently, mainly through the prodding of my makeup artist, who really loves the brand. And he was like, “Oh, you should try their restorative skin complex” because, you know, I’m down the path of life. Women at this stage of life, we need different products that are rich in peptides, have hyaluronic acid—things that we really need as we’re aging and our skin is drying and we’re losing our hormones. They have a product called Restorative Skin Complex, which is like a moisturizer for women in midlife. They have a product called C-Radical that is infused with vitamin C, and I think that’s really good for women at this stage of life. Vitamin C is really good for our skin because it’s brightening and it’s been a wonderful product for me for six months.

What has it been like preparing for the Cannes Film Festival overall?

I’ve never done this before. I realized once I got here, to have my first experience be, arguably, in the best festival in the world has been mind-boggling. I am with an incredible group of jurors from all different walks of life—literature, filmmaking, actresses—Juliette Binoche, of course, is our president, so acclaimed and so beloved, especially here in France. And it’s just been really nice to be with these people and to hear how we all view movies and cinema and art in such diverse ways, because we’re all from our culture, our families of origin, our upbringing, our life experience, and to hear their take on films that we watch together, but we all have such different feelings about what we see based on who we are. It’s been an eye-opening experience.

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Has there been any part that’s been memorable, or something that you loved that you can speak to?

Well, you know I can’t talk about that! [Laughs] We’re sworn to secrecy until we announce the Palme d’Or and the Grand Prix and all the prizes. But I can tell you that one of my greatest joys has been when I sit in the cinema, the Palais, the sound, the screen, you will never see cinema in a better place than we see it here at the Cannes Film Festival. So when the lights go down, I become five again and I’m just excited to enter into whatever world is about to be presented in the best cinema in the world, with people who I’ve bonded with now, and an audience of people that I don’t know, and people who all love movies and cinema. And they’re there and every day the theater is packed—there’s no empty seats—and it’s just life-changing.

When I leave the movies, whether I loved it or didn’t love it, I can appreciate what the filmmaker set forth. I know the work that went into that. I know the honor it is for them to have their movies be chosen to be seen in the festival. So I appreciate all of it. I learn from what I love and I learn from what didn’t quite touch me. But I can always appreciate the artistry and the effort—of every film director, actor, actress—that they put into the art that they made because it’s some of the best in the world.

What’s it been like to get dressed since the dress code was modified right at the start of the festival? Did it make things harder or easier for you?

That was a big thing for me, not that I had any naked dresses planned here.

But I did have some things with more grandiose kinds of trains that were more opulent, and I had to switch all of those things because I heard very clearly when they said they didn’t want all of that. Being on the jury I very much wanted to fit into this jury, not sort of stand apart from it. Although I think we’re all ourselves on this jury and I’ve been trying really hard to be a part of this esteemed group and take that part of why I’m here very seriously. So when they mentioned the dress code, I thought, Okay, no problem. But while I wanted to follow the rules, it did send me and my stylist, Maryam Malakpour, into a tailspin because that meant I had to change some things. I had to get on the ground, find new dresses, find new things, have fittings in between my jury duties and between my evenings out. So it put another level of work and a little bit of stress on my situation, but following those rules have felt really important to me, you know?

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How do you define beauty? Are there any lessons that beauty has taught you?

Beauty is as beauty does and I’ve known that since I was very young. You can be physically beautiful per whosoever standards, but we do have a standard of what we think beauty is in the world, and it changes differently from region to region, country to country, but I think there’s some general standards of what people think beauty is, and I’ve never ascribed to that. I think beauty is what beauty does. I think it comes from within, which is also why I think as we age, as women, I’m hoping we will evolve, or I’m hoping I remain a woman who is less focused on my physical self. When the lines come and the aging happens, because it’s happening to me now, I’m hoping I can stay true to my fundamental and core beliefs that beauty is as beauty does and this is just the shell that I’m walking around in. And when this shell starts to change into a new version of myself, that I can still be as beautiful as I felt when I was 15, when I was 25, when I was 35, 45, now that I’m approaching 60. I think it’s the childlike innocence, it’s your zest for life, it’s your sense of treating others as you would want to be treated—those are the things that keep you youthful and keep you beautiful. And I think it really does come from a place deeper than what the physical shell looks like.

How have you maintained your peace in all of this?

It’s not been hard to be peaceful; this has been an amazing experience. What’s been more challenging for me is maintaining my stamina—to just have the energy. I watch three movies a day and then we have jury meetings and then I have events at night. I go out; dinner here in the French Riviera starts at ten o’clock [laughs]. So staying out till one or two in the morning and then having to get up at 7 a.m. to go watch a movie at eight. You know, that’s been the hard part. There’s not enough hours in the day to do all the things that I’m committed to doing. But I’ve been very peaceful and very happy.