The Union: Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg Talk Working Together For the First Time

The Union hit Netflix today and the new action flick features a star-studded cast. The film stars Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg, who have been friends for 30 years but have never made a film together. In their new movie, Roxanne (Berry) recruits her high school boyfriend (Wahlberg) to help her secret organization complete a dangerous intelligence mission in Europe. At the film’s premiere in Los Angeles, ComicBook had the chance to chat with the duo, and we brought up their onscreen chemistry and wondered what it was like to finally work together after all these years.

“Well, that chemistry would translate onto the screen because, look, we have a great script, we have a great backstory, but the thing that wins the day is that people want to see us together,” Wahlberg explained. “And that chemistry, you can’t create that. You either have it or you don’t. She’s fantastic. Everything she appears to be on screen, she is in real life. She’s wonderful, talented, super approachable, super accessible. She’s amazing.” 

“I’ve known the guy for 30 years,” Berry added. This is the thing I didn’t know I needed.”

The Union Cast Talks Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg:

We also talked to Berry and Wahlberg’s castmates, who spoke about watching them work together.

“It’s great,” Mike Colter said of watching their chemistry unfold onscreen. “It’s funny because I think when it was cast, you have characters that you think, ‘Oh, they must’ve worked together,’ but they haven’t, and they’re [playing] old high school sweethearts. So that kind of fits. It’s like, ‘Did we know each other? A version of ourselves at some point? Time has passed now we’re different people.’ So that kind of works. It’s like, ‘I know you, but I don’t know you. I knew you, but now you’re not the same person.’ So I think that casting really works for that element.”

“Man, they were both just super down to earth, super cool, super friendly, really talented,” Jackie Earle Haley shared. “I’m a big fan of both of them … For me, I’m just like everybody else. If I go into a streaming thing and there’s all these buttons, if I see one that’s got Mark Wahlberg, ‘Wow, I’m going to watch that.’ … And same thing with Halle. I love them both. And it was just a great experience to get to be there to help support but also to watch. And I think that part was really written well, and they’ve got a great chemistry together, Mark and Halle. I think they were kind of perfectly cast. So knowing those two names and reading the script, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is going to be good.’”

“I was very pleasantly surprised how grounded and relatable they were,” Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje added. “They were very tight, like best of friends. And also the chemistry in the scenes. It was great. They looked like they had worked together before, so they fooled me.”

“Their chemistry is insane,” Alice Lee shared. “The first scene that I shot … I didn’t have any words, honestly. So I just think it was so funny meeting Mark and Halle being like, ‘Oh my God, it’s nice to meet you. I can’t wait to work with you.’ And then I don’t have any lines, but they were so generous and so sweet and they were really taking care of me because something happened where something hit my hand … They were just so chill. They were like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Yeah, I’m okay.’”

“I mean, you can see it. You can see it on screen,” Jessica De Gouw added of Berry and Wahlberg’s chemistry. “There’s such a playfulness to them and they’re riffing with each other and it just makes it so easy, standing off the side and watching them or being in this scene with them, there are so many options that they offer because it’s all pretty organic. You could tell they’re having fun and I think that really comes across in the film.”

The Union is now streaming on Netflix.