Interview from United Press International


Interview of the week: Halle Berry
By Karen Butler
From the Life & Mind Desk


NEW YORK, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry says her steamy love scene with "Die Another Day" co-star Pierce Brosnan will remain forever etched in her memory -- although not for the reasons one might think.

"We were doing the love scene and I was trying to be way too sexy for my own good, obviously," she recently confessed to reporters, "and something got stuck in my throat and I wasn't getting any air in or out and Pierce said that he always knew that if someone wasn't coughing they were really choking. And he just right away jumped up in back of me, did something, and out the thing came."

The anecdote prompted one concerned reporter to ask the heart-felt question, "Did you guys have any clothes on at the time?"

"We did, but it was very bare, but we just forget that," explained the 34-year-old Cleveland native. "He jumped up. I jumped up and the lights came up, everybody came rushing in. And when it was over we looked around, 'Oh, lights down.' It was so not sexy. After that is was, OK let's just shoot this scene.'"

That said, Berry insists being a Bond girl is every bit as much fun as it looks.

"It was more fun and more work then I could have imagined," she said.

Although Berry won the Academy Award for best actress for playing the young wife of a man on Death Row in last year's "Monster's Ball," the petite beauty is best-known for kicking butt in action films such as "The Last Boy Scout," "X-Men" and "Swordfish." With a resume like that Berry should have been well-prepared for the rigors of being a Bond girl, right? Not even close, the actress says.

"For some reason I'd never done so much fighting and kicking," Berry said. "It was just on some days physically exhausting. Thinking I was prepared, but realizing after the fact that I hadn't really prepared enough, and wishing I had spent more time getting prepared. If I get to do it ever again I've learned that."

Comparing her "Die Another Day" character, Jinx, to Storm, the superheroine she plays in "X-Men" and the upcoming "X2," Berry said: "As Storm, I control the weather. She stands, rises her arms and her eyes go white. As Jinx, I had to fight with knifes, repel from ceilings, and run after moving airplanes and jump in and out of holes that I'm really not good at chin-ups and pull-ups and I realized that's the kind of thing one has to start to work on before beginning a movie like this."

Berry says she loves that the concept of an "action heroine" has developed during her career.

"I think it's great," she noted. "Someone asked me did I ever imagine I'd become an action heroine and I thought, 'No,' because growing up and in my 20s all the action heroes were men. It's only been in the last five or six years that women have emerged as being action heroes. I think that's just indicative of our society changing as women we're evolving, becoming more empowered. And I think soon we'll have some strong female action heroes that will be part of franchises just like James Bond."

Asked if she would go see "Die Another Day" even if she wasn't it, Berry said: "I've been going to Bond movies probably the last eight years. So yeah, I would go."

So what is it about Agent 007 that has captured moviegoers' attention for the last 40 years?

"I love the world, the fantasy, and I love the sexy guy," Berry offered. "And I know that Bond is going to foil the crime without a scratch on him, and there's going to be the great lines, and there's going to be the gadgets, and it's going to be a good ride. A good clean ride. There's violence, but you don't really see it. There's sex, but you don't really see it. There's glamour. You can take a teen with you. It's not one of these gory kinds of action movies. Being a woman, I think I always respond a little better to those kinds of action movies."

"Die Another Day," the 20th installment in the James Bond franchise, is in theatres now.



From the Sunday Herald on November 17, 2002


Unjinxed

Abandoned by her father and beaten by a former lover, Halle Berry has turned her back on a difficult past to win some coveted roles and an Oscar. Now, as Karl Dittman discovers, she's planning to be bigger than James Bond himself...


'I can get anybody on the phone right now, so I'd better make the most of it.' Halle Berry is serious, but to most people her career trajectory doesn't look like going into freefall any time soon. Currently gracing newspaper pages in an orange bikini and a dagger in her belt a la Ursula Andress for the forthcoming Bond movie, Die Another Day (and tipped to star in the first ever Bond spin-off based on her character Jinx), the voluptuous Berry couldn't be described as anything other than radiant. But the 35-year-old actress's beauty has never been in doubt. And since her searing performance in Monster's Ball for which she won an Oscar for best actress -- and was the first black woman to do so -- neither is her acting talent.

Before this year's fateful Oscar night, Berry had hit the headlines mainly for accepting, so popular gossip claimed, $500,000 to go topless in the hacker movie Swordfish. According to Berry, though, that titbit was completely fabricated. 'Getting paid $500,000 for that scene is just not true. Anyway, I would sell these babies for way much more money than that,' she laughs. 'But it made for great publicity for the movie.' In fact, film sources admit her very decent exposure probably garnered the hit film an extra $20 million at the box office.

On a more earnest note, for Berry, exposing her breasts in front of the Swordfish cameras was more than just an emotionally liberating experience. Her new-found freedom to expose her body and dig deep into her own emotions, opened the door to accepting a role in the most controversial film of her career, the independent art-house film, Monster's Ball. Co-starring Billy Bob Thornton in the gritty, no-holds-barred story about a black woman who becomes sexually and emotionally involved with the racist prison guard responsible for carrying out her husband's death sentence, Berry's part in Monster's Ball was a risky role for any actress to undertake.

'I really wanted to do Monster's Ball, because after Swordfish and X-Men, I didn't want people to think that was all I could do,' she explains. 'When it presented itself, I thought, 'Here's a chance for me to really stretch and grow and show another side of who I am.'

Berry completely pushed the envelope by performing her first totally nude love scene with Billy Bob Thornton. 'I make no excuses for it, because without that scene, I think that it would have been a totally different movie,' she says. 'It's pivotal. I think from that moment on, you understand how and why these two people -- who at the beginning of the movie, you would never think would ever come together -- happen to fall in love. The nudity didn't bother me, because now I'm the kind of person who would use my body in any way that would best service the character.

'Now I feel like I can go after all those things that maybe I was afraid of before. Because now that I'm not saying 'Absolutely no!' to nudity any more, there's so many more options. Now I'm feeling more grown-up, more adult and more willing to try those kind of things.'

Of course, it's Berry's acting that made Monster's Ball such a cinematic success. Raw, vulnerable and powerfully moving, her performance was praised by even her harshest critics. She hopes it will open the doors for more diverse and substantial African-American roles in Hollywood. Like her hero, Dorothy Dandridge, Berry feels honoured to be considered a role model for members of the black community.

'I know that growing up, I always knew I needed someone to look up to,' she recalls. 'And it was hard to find those images, those public images. So I know how important that is. I have little black boys and girls always coming up to me, how important that is and that I give them inspiration, so that feels good.'

The fulfilment of her wildest wishes and deepest desires is becoming something of a trend for the hard-working actress. Already, the first two-and-a-half years of the new millennium have been just this side of phenomenal for Halle Berry. Never before has there been so much positive synergy in both her professional career and her private life.

The 21st century began with Berry winning a Best Actress Golden Globe for her dazzling turn in the critically acclaimed cable biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Her lucky streak began to pick-up even more momentum after garnering roles in the back-to-back box office hits X-Men and Swordfish. When early, overwhelmingly positive reviews for her portrayal of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball began to surface, it quickly became obvious Berry was no longer being thought of as just another pretty face. A Golden Globe nomination and later the Best Actress Oscar award only heightened Hollywood's newly found respect for Berry as a 'serious' actress.

In taking home an Academy Award, Berry's Cinderella-like, rags-to-riches story was complete. She had also found found her Prince Charming singer/actor Eric Benet, with whom she exchanged wedding vows in January of 2001. Despite the Hollywood rumour factory dispatching tales of marital strife, Berry is adamant that everything is rosy in their garden. 'It's still a little hard to believe all these great things are happening to me, because I think I got sort of preconditioned that maybe happiness just wasn't for me,' she says. 'But, it feels really good to know that it was just maybe some bad choices I made. I've learned a lot of things about myself and it feels good.'

Although she went through myriad misfortunes and troubled times as a young woman, Berry, the daughter of a broken, abusive, bi-racial marriage, remembers her childhood years growing up in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio as relatively carefree.

'My mom brought me up single-handed after my dad left and always made sure I felt loved and that I was special and could do anything I wanted,' Berry recalls . 'And, even though she was white, she made sure I learned as much as I could about my African-American heritage. She went out of her way to make sure that me being half-white and half-black was nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, she wanted me to be proud of it. While I was growing up, I never knew what it meant to be discriminated against. Prejudice was a foreign concept to me.'

Additionally, her all-white classmates wholeheartedly embraced her. A straight A student, Berry excelled in every subject and participated in every extracurricular activity she could manage to fit in her adolescent schedule.

'I loved school,' she remembers. 'And, I wanted to do everything. I went out for cheerleader and won. I ran for student government and aced the election. I was having the time of my life.'

But, as she began to grow into teenager, Berry's mother began to warn her that while her suburban white friends treated her as one of their own, under the surface, all they really saw was black. 'I thought it was strange coming from my mom, because she had always stressed that race never mattered to people,' she says. 'She told me, 'Now that you're older, you need to be careful, because when push comes to shove, they'll turn their back on you, because you are half-black.' I thought she was crazy.'

Her mother's words would soon came back to haunt her when she ran for Homecoming Queen. When she won the school-wide contest, instead of celebrating her victory, many of her peers accused her of fixing the vote. It was Berry's first brush with racism, and it would leave an indelible mark.

'I couldn't believe everyone thought I had cheated just because I was black,' she says with a hint of outrage in her voice. 'It was like it was OK for me to be a cheerleader or class president, but there was no way I could have won the race for Homecoming Queen fair and square. I was shocked and hurt. And, my mom said, 'I told you it would happen. I hoped it never would, but I wanted you to be ready for it.' I don't think prejudice is something you're ever ready for, or something you ever get used to.'

Her high school years, however, weren't all traumatic. In 1985, at the age of 17, Berry entered the Miss Teen All-American Pageant and ended-up being crowned the winner. The following year, as a representative for the state of Ohio, she went on to try her luck at the Miss USA Pageant. Although she didn't take home the top prize, Berry certainly wasn't a loser -- she was named first runner-up. More importantly, the pageants brought her offers to model. So, while attending Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Berry supported herself by going out on countless modelling gigs. After a while, though, she was ready to move on to acting. She had been given her first taste of show business, and was hungry for more.

'Like every other kid in America, I had this dream of becoming a movie star,' she says. 'Modelling gave me the confidence to give it a serious try. I had done pretty well up until then with commercials and stuff, so, I thought, 'How hard could it be?' Little did I know.'

Deciding Ohio was not the ideal place to launch a burgeoning acting career, Berry moved to Los Angeles on her 21st birthday. Once in the City of Angels, however, she quickly found out agents and casting directors weren't exactly falling over themselves to give her a job. So, she hit the pavement. After scoring a few more modelling assignments, Berry landed a starring role on sitcom Living Dolls. But her days as a television star would be short-lived; Living Dolls was cancelled after one season. By this time, though, she had an agent, one determined to see her face on the silver screen. So, Berry embarked on a relentless auditioning juggernaut. But, no dice.

Finally, after reading about a casting call for a young, black female to portray a junkie in a film about a bi-racial relationship, Berry immediately flew to New York to meet with its director. Unsure that the beautiful yet unseasoned young African-American woman could handle such a demanding role, Jungle Fever director Spike Lee initially rejected Berry for the part. But, she was not about to take no for an answer. Before she met with Lee for a second reading, Berry went days without bathing and outfitted herself in the most raggedy clothes she could lay her hands on. The rest, as they say in Tinsel Town, is history.

'Even though I had never taken drugs, I just knew I could play a junkie,' she explains. 'The part was so good, there was no way I was going to let it slip through my fingers. I think I really surprised Spike when I came in all stinky and ratty. But, it allowed him to see past 'the pretty little black girl' exterior. It made him take me seriously. And, he gave me the role.'

From the moment she appeared on the screen in 1991's Jungle Fever, movie-going audiences and critics were hooked. Reviewers couldn't come up with enough adjectives to praise her performance. Almost overnight, Berry had become a star. Offers started pouring in. In quick succession she scored roles in Boomerang, The Flintstones and Losing Isaiah. But while everything was falling into place with her career, her personal life was in shambles.

Dating a number of Hollywood celebrities, Berry kept falling into one bad relationship after another. This included a -- nameless -- star who beat her so badly that her hearing in one ear is permanently impaired. Then came her marriage to baseball player Dave Justice on New Year's Eve 1991. But this too was destined to be a turbulent and unhappy union which fours years later disintegrated into a messy divorce that played out in the headlines of the grocery store tabloids. It was Berry's season in hell, culminating in serious contemplation of suicide in 1997.

Berry needed to get her career back in order. She had continued to work during and after her marriage, but she was unsatisfied with the roles she was landing -- the same cute, young, African-American women in peril. She needed a part that would remind Hollywood she could portray more than one-dimensional characters. And, she knew just the role that would do the trick.

For seven years -- up against superstars like Diana Ross and Whitney Houston -- Berry had been campaigning to portray iconic black heroine Dorothy Dandridge. The tragic, true-life tale of a talented, Oscar-nominated, African-American actress who died from a drug overdose spoke to Berry and she bought the rights to Dandridge's life story and pitched it to HBO as a feature-length film. HBO immediately green lighted the production Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Her career was back on track.

'I know that a lot of big name actresses had been wanting to play her for a long time, but I think I was the most passionate about it,' the highly-paid Revlon spokeswoman says. 'Without Dorothy Dandridge, I might not be doing what I'm doing today. She opened a big door for black actresses, back in the Fifties. Unfortunately, she died so young, so her real contributions weren't fully realised. So, I felt like it was my duty to rectify that. I identified with her strongly.' That much became clear in Berry's now infamous tearful acceptance speech for her best actress Oscar.

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge was a ratings and artistic success for Berry in 1999. Once again, critics were touting her incredibly diverse talents, declaring her to be 'one of the best actresses Hollywood has to offer'. A year later, her efforts were rewarded with a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The industry award represented not only a career achievement, but a personal triumph for Berry.

Next came sci-fi action movie X-men, which surprised many after her critical success with Dandridge. 'Bryan Singer the director had the vision to see me in the role of Storm (the white-haired, super-charged heroine). It was a challenging role for me, physically and mentally, but I enjoyed every minute of it.' Afterwards, Berry took a little time off to concentrate on her love life.

She wanted to spend quality time with the man who had stolen her heart, musician/songwriter Eric Benet. And, in a move that surprised even her closest friends, the never-married Benet and the once-bitten Berry walked down the aisle in June 2001. 'I knew he was 'the one' because he is so supportive of who I am and where I am trying to go as an actress and as a black woman,' she beams. 'It was refreshing to know that he could see all my work, and not feel insecure. He lets me fly.'

Now flaunting her Bond babe status, the Amazonian Berry plays sassy CIA agent Jinx to Pierce Brosnan's smoothy old 007 and the pair are said to crackle with chemistry on screen. 'She could kick my ass,' Brosnan is reported to have said respectfully and affectionately of his American co-star. True, it's a bit of leap from Monster's Ball to James Bond, but this is typical Berry career strategy: 'Yeah, well you get to do your bit for art's sake, then you get to kick some righteous ass!' she laughs.

Now with that career firmly in the ascendant, Berry is just happy to have survived the trials and tribulations of her life. Remaining a survivor is the one achievement she's the most proud of.

'I'm still here. I'm a lot more confident that that's really just what life is all about -- peaks and valleys. The valleys are the learning curve. I've learned the most about life and myself in those really dark hours.

'And now it feels great to finally have my time in the sun.'