Halle Berry Explains How She Decided to Make Her Directorial Debut with 'Bruised' : 'Who Said I Can't?'

Halle Berry has made her directorial debut!

Speaking with PEOPLE at the premiere of her Netflix film Bruised at the AFI Fest on Saturday, the 55-year-old Oscar winner detailed her passion for the project as well as "the fight game."

"I was told a long time ago that if you're going to direct a story and be a filmmaker, especially your first movie, you best make it about something that you love and something you intrinsically understand," the actress-turned-director told PEOPLE. "And I love the fight game. I understand this world and I understand what it is to be a woman fighting to survive."

"I know what it's like to make mistakes and want another chance," Berry added. "I know what it's like to hope for redemption and ask for forgiveness. These are all things that I understand very, very deeply. And those are the themes of this movie."

Berry stars in the film as Jackie Justice, a retired mixed martial arts fighter who is convinced to return to the ring "when the young son she left behind comes back into her life," according to Netflix.

In a Q&A with Ava DuVernay at Saturday's event at the TCL Theater in Hollywood, Berry revealed that she was "determined" to have a female filmmaker tell the story. The Moonfall star spoke to "many" women about the role, but ultimately felt they weren't entirely in tune with her vision for the film.

"They couldn't quite understand all the elements of a piece of art so they saw the drama part of the story, but they weren't fight fans so they shy away from that," Berry told DuVernay. "Some of them didn't want to go as hard-hitting and deal with some of these subjects like I was wanting to do and needing to do."

Berry remembered being "pretty distraught" over her struggle to find filmmakers one night when "a dear friend" asked her if she would consider taking on the job herself.

"Me do it? I've never directed a movie before," Berry recalled saying at the time. "This is too big of a role to play. I can't do that."

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But her friend persisted: "She said, 'You absolutely can. You love it like I've never seen anyone love anything. You know the story. You know these characters, it's all in your head. You just need to spit it out. You light up every time somebody talks to you about it. Or course you can. All you have to do is believe that you can.' "

That night, Berry said she "thought long and hard on" the prospect of directing the film before asking herself "Why can't I do this? Who said I can't?"

The John Wick 3 star told DuVernay that she called her manager the following morning and asked to speak to Bruised producer Basil Iwanyk about the opportunity. It ultimately turned out to be one of the actress' "greatest moments in life."

"I went to see Basil and before I got it out of my mouth he said yes," she explained. "And then I jumped all over him and I ran into the hallway of the office and screamed at the top of my lungs, 'I'm going to make a movie!' "

Bruised hits Netflix globally on Nov. 24.