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Halle Berry & Mark Wahlberg turned their 30-year friendship into a hit Netflix movie

Sometimes the secret is to actually have known each other for decades.

Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg in The Union
Image credit: Netflix

Action films are a delicate balancing act. Between all the wild stunts and the massive explosions, you’ve got to convince us that the people being shot at deserve to survive the ridiculous circumstances they find themselves in. For Netflix’s newest hit, The Union, the leads have the extra difficult task of making us believe they are high school sweethearts who have known each other for decades. Fortunately, Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg have history dating back 30 years to draw from.

In The Union, Halle Berry plays a top agent for a covert organization that is trying to retrieve a list that compromises government agents around the world. To help them steal it back, she contacts her high school sweetheart, played by Mark Wahlberg. While promoting the film, Berry explained why it was easy to build the right dynamic with Walhberg on set – they’ve actually known each other for longer than many Netflix subscribers have been alive. “We’ve known each other many, many years. We met back [in], he says late ‘80s, I say early ‘90s, but a long time ago.”

Apparently, it isn’t just their long history together that has helped the pair build their chemistry in the new movie. “And the minute we got together, we just realized we’re kind of cut from the same cloth. We both started in very meager beginnings, same part of the country almost, we had the same references growing up.”

That shared history was crucial in elevating The Union from a mindless action film to something with a bit more heart. “We had a lot of commonalities between us that sort of bound us together. We relied on that. We tried to bring that to the characters.”

The Union is streaming now on Netflix.


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Trent Cannon

Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)

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