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Halle Berry opens the Super Bowl with a trip to Hollywood and football movies

Halle Berry posing in a black dress
Halle Berry arrives at the 2022 premiere of "Moonfall" in Los Angeles. (Chris Pizzello / Invision)

It's only fitting that the first Super Bowl in Los Angeles in nearly 30 years would open with an homage to football and Hollywood, narrated by none other than Oscar winner Halle Berry.

"So the Super Bowl is back in L.A.," Berry said in a pre-recorded intro to the Inglewood championship game.

"You ask me, this is the only place it should be. I mean, come on. This town, this game? You look in the right places, you’ll realize they are one and the same."

The star-studded vignette also featured other entertainment figures such as Kevin Hart and Carrie Underwood, as well as cameos from real-life football legends including Joe Namath, Mike Singletary, Marcus Allen, Ronnie Lott, James Harrison and Peyton Manning.

The inspirational promo played just minutes before the Cincinnati Bengals faced off against the L.A. Rams at SoFi Stadium.

"The Super Bowl and the movies, they were basically invented for the exact same reason: to give us things to dream about," Berry continued while strolling through a bustling film set.

"Hollywood got football from the start. Screenwriters understood how the game wasn’t just a game. It was a way to tell a story about heroes, about struggle, about triumph. Then the Super Bowl … brought all those stories to a whole other level. Millions of people seeing how anything was really possible if you just believed in it, and you had the charm to pull it off."

Like any good sports drama, the tribute ended with a dynamic montage featuring footage of standout Super Bowl moments, as well as triumphant scenes from various football movies, from "Brian's Song" and "The Blindside" to "Any Given Sunday" and "Remember the Titans."

"What it all adds up to is this: The big game and the big screen are two places where the excitement is the same, the tension is the same and the wonder of it all is the same," Berry said.

"Welcome to the land of stories. Welcome to the Super Bowl. Welcome to the next game we all might remember forever, together."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.