Lena Waithe recently spoke about trying to dissuade Halle Berry from making her feature directorial debut, Bruised.

The film, set to come to Netflix on Nov. 24, stars Berry as a down-and-out MMA fighter who trains for her big comeback amid personal struggle. The film is also Berry’s directorial debut, but if she had listened to Waithe, it wouldn’t be.

Variety reports that at Thursday’s ELLE Women in Hollywood event, Waithe told Berry “to think long and hard” about directing and that she thought she may be taking on too much.

“I told her to think long and hard about it before she made that decision. When she came back to me a few weeks later, she told me she understood why I was scared–because I love her and I wanted to protect her. And she was right. But then she said, ‘If I don’t do this, I’ll never forgive myself. I gotta see what I’m made of.”

“I was shaking in my boots,” says @LenaWaithe of when Halle Berry told her she wanted to direct herself playing MMA fighter in “Bruised.” #ELLEWIH pic.twitter.com/jeUQRZJ9az

— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) October 20, 2021

As Variety reports, Berry also commented on Waithe’s misgivings during the event, saying, “I know she was scared for me, [but] I knew I had 30 years of experience, I had people who loved me and cared for me and I had earned enough good will in this industry that they would show up and help.”