Halle Berry was not messing around when it came to preparation for her latest starring role.

Berry plays Jackie Justice, a former UFC fighter in major need of a comeback, in the new Netflix film “Bruised,” which landed a week ago and became the streaming service’s top release of the week.

Berry, a 55-year-old historic Oscar winner – she was the first Black recipient of the Best Actress award, and remains the only one 20 years later – went all in on her training for the part. And if the training and starring weren’t enough, Berry also went behind the lens as a first-time director.

She brought in UFC women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko to play her opponent in the climactic fight scene and said having her involved took the realism to the next level.

“What made me really have to have Valentina in this movie is, through my training, I realized that my ground game was much better than my standup game,” Berry recently told MMA Junkie. “And she is, pound-for-pound, one of the best strikers the sport will ever experience. So I thought if my ground game is pretty good and I can really pull off a real grappler, and I can get the best standup striker in my weight class to do this movie with me, I think we can make a really dynamic fight.

“To be able to get the best in the world while they’re at the top of their game to come be in your movie, what would be better than that? And to train from her, learn from her – she brought so much credibility to the fight. She always let us know when we were doing it right, when we were doing it wrong. I knew that I would have someone standing next to me that would bring authenticity to this fight. That was really, really important to me.”

Shevchenko has eight straight wins. Her only UFC losses are to women’s bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes, both by decision. She won the women’s flyweight title nearly three years ago and has six straight defenses of the belt.

She said Berry’s fighting chops very much are legitimate.

“If Halle wants to continue her fighting career, wants to go inside the octagon and fight, she can do it – because she has all the skills for that,” Shevchenko said. “I know that as she was training before it for two or three years – grappling, striking, everything – definitely it was super easy to create the fight sequences because it is in her. She had it just click, and she completely understands the technique (and) completely understands the moves.

“In my training, I go hard. Closer to the filming date, I knew I could really go hard because Halle was insisting, ‘You better go hard because I want to feel this real energy of the real fight.’ We were working together to create this teamwork to create the feeling that it’s not just a fight that can happen with surreal movements or whatever, but is one that we’d see in a real-life octagon.”

Shevchenko even broke a pair of Berry’s ribs during a fight sequence – and Berry soldiered on rather than risk shutting down production.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve taken a Valentina Shevchenko kick. You haven’t lived until that’s happened to you,” Berry saiid. “All the bruises were pretty real.”