--- title: Halle Berry Planted A Big Kiss on Lena Waithe On Kimmel description: Halle Berry gave Lena Waithe a little kiss for luck when the comedian guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! canonical: https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-23T15:31:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:02.753Z og:title: Halle Berry Planted a Big Kiss on Lena Waithe On Kimmel og:description: Waithe needed the luck as she guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! og:url: https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef11b78a4d60771/69894a55e76ad23afe634b3d/halle-berry-lena-waithe-kiss-jimmy-kimmel-live.png?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1120 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: In this screenshot from video, Actresses Halle Berry and Lena Waithe are seen kissing on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on May 22, 2019. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Halle Berry Planted a Big Kiss on Lena Waithe On Kimmel twitter:description: Waithe needed the luck as she guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef11b78a4d60771/69894a55e76ad23afe634b3d/halle-berry-lena-waithe-kiss-jimmy-kimmel-live.png?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Halle Berry Gave Lena Waithe a Big Kiss For Luck on Her First Night Hosting _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 23, 2019 3:31 PM UTC  In this screenshot from video, Actresses Halle Berry and Lena Waithe are seen kissing on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on May 22, 2019. In this screenshot from video, Actresses Halle Berry and Lena Waithe are seen kissing on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on May 22, 2019.YouTube by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker May 23, 2019 3:31 PM UTC While Jimmy Kimmel was off co-hosting the live Norman Lear tribute on Wednesday, he left his talk show in good hands by actor and comedian [Lena Waithe](http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5238194/lena-waithe/) to guest host _Jimmy Kimmel Live!_ while he was away. While Waithe has [plenty of experience](http://time.com/5520556/lena-waithe-black-hollywood/) in front of a camera thanks to working on _Master of None_ and _The Chi_ it felt like something was missing. Luckily Waithe was prepared for that possibility and pushed on the “Berry Button”, which summoned the Oscar-winning actress to the stage. Berry appeared and asked Waithe, “Baby, what can I do for you?” “I need some inspiration. Like [that Oscars speech](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,220084,00.html) you gave, that got me hyped,” Waithe replied. “I need you to give me some of that Halle Berry juice.” Berry was more than happy to comply and launched into a heartfelt, inspirational monologue for the guest host. “Lena, you know I know you, right? We’ve worked together, so I know that you are a force of nature,” Berry said. “You are a [beautiful African American](http://time.com/5594076/harriet-tubman-bill/) queen.” She continued, “Lena, tonight you are a writer, an actor, a producer and tonight you are a late-night comedian. You about to slay this show!” If that moving speech didn’t get Waithe pumped, Berry gave it one more go: “And you are already winning, girl, because you are dressed way better than Jimmy ever was.” [_The John Wick: Chapter 3_](http://time.com/5592623/keanu-reeves-ice-cream/) _– Parabellum_ star wasn’t done yet. She looked at Waithe a moment and said, “I think you need something else.” She then planted a big old kiss on Waithe, before pulling away and declaring to Waite: “Now you’re good!” While it’s unclear whether the kiss was planned or impromptu, Waithe was happy to share the moment on Twitter as a teaser for her hosting gig. Clearly, Waithe needs to be given her own talk show soon so she can push “The Berry Button” any time she wants or needs or just feels like it. > [](https://twitter.com/LenaWaithe/status/1131400427810037762) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/"},"headline":"Halle Berry Gave Lena Waithe a Big Kiss For Luck on Her First Night Hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!","datePublished":"2019-05-23T15:31:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:02.753Z","description":"Waithe needed the luck as she guest hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live!","url":"https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/","keywords":["Newsfeed","jimmy kimmel live","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef11b78a4d60771/69894a55e76ad23afe634b3d/halle-berry-lena-waithe-kiss-jimmy-kimmel-live.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ef11b78a4d60771/69894a55e76ad23afe634b3d/halle-berry-lena-waithe-kiss-jimmy-kimmel-live.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"In this screenshot from video, Actresses Halle Berry and Lena Waithe are seen kissing on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' on May 22, 2019.","caption":"halle-berry-lena-waithe-kiss-jimmy-kimmel-live","creditText":"YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5594682/halle-berry-lena-waithe-on-kimmel/","name":"Halle Berry Gave Lena Waithe a Big Kiss For Luck on Her First Night Hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!"}}]}] ```