Halle Berry surprises fans at 'Never Let Go' 'distressed wig' screening

Halle Berry is very, very good to her fans.

Not only did the Oscar-winner help curate a pair of special screenings of her new horror film Never Let Go, she surprised the lucky attendees of the Sept. 17 screening in New York City.

"My people!" she cheered in a video shared exclusively with Entertainment Weekly. The crowd, all bedecked in their "best distressed wigs" (per the event invite ), greeted Berry with cheers and whistles. "Yes, I love this!" she exclaimed, "the people've all got their wigs on!" Berry sported her own wig from the 2013 film The Call. That short, curly 'do is the wig that launched a thousand memes, leading to a unique and exceedingly close relationship between Berry and her online fans and eventually to these very screenings .

Dubbed the Never Let Go (of my wig) fan screenings, attendees were informed that "Halle Berry brings us another movie with kids she's trying to keep alive and wigs she's distressing to death" in Never Let Go, and encouraged to "wear a bob. Wear 50-inch Brazilian. Bring a pussycat wig. Bring any wig as long as its DISTRESSED."

In case anyone showed up lacking the designated attire, Berry brought along a bag of spare wigs. "Where's your wig brother, you don't have a wig on," she said to one audience member. "Don't be ashamed, put it on," she said, handing him a loose wig.

Fans have been playfully memeing the actress's The Call wig for years, and recently Berry's gotten in on the fun. She frequently posts her own wig edits to X, joking with fans about her characters' propensity to don choppy hair pieces and save their imperiled kids.

"Y'all have been dragging me for years for this wig right here," she told the crowd. "We're loving it!" one audience member called out. "I know, and I know it's lovingly, and I receive that as love. So thank you so much," Berry graciously explained.

She then finally revealed a bit of meme lore that fans have been craving for years: the story behind the Call wig.

"This little hairstyle for The Call — wanna know how I got this?" she asked the crowd. "I didn't just make this abomination up."

"I went to the call center and I was doing my research, and the woman that walked me through the call center and explained to me what it was to be a 911 call operator had this hairdo. And so I stole it from her," Berry laughed. "It was on a real person, I promise you."

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The crowd laughed heartily with Berry, but she eventually expressed her heartfelt gratitude to them. "It means so much to me that you guys would come out tonight, to come support this movie that I'm so proud of."

Never Let Go stars Berry as common character in her repertoire, a protective mother, who's dead set on guarding her twin sons against a vengeful forest-dwelling spirit that only she can see. She referenced past characters like her Call character Jordan Turner, who "saved Abigail Breslin from the trunk, I got her ass out," and Karla Dyson, her character from 2017's Kidnap. "I saved Frankie," her on-screen son in Kidnap, played by Sage Correa. "You know, when those people snatched him off the road, I saved his ass."

"And I'm gonna save these kids too," she added, to the audience's cheers.

"And you know there's another wig in it! Another f-ed up wig," she laughed.

Berry concluded her intro by urging fans to "send me pictures of these wigs, I wanna see all of them!" She encouraged them to "tweet me," explaining, "I'm gonna be waiting up to know what my special fans think."