Halle Berry: Halle-lujah!

When I ask Berry what she considers the truest cliche about Hollywood, she answers like a shot, "The truest cliche about Hollywood is that women have boobs and everybody wants to see them!" After a beat, she adds, "When I came to Hollywood, I had an audition where the guy said, subtly, 'Sleep with me and the part's yours.' Well, only women with half a brain fall for that shit, then screw half the town and end up screwing themselves big time." Would she care to get more specific? "Well, this was another instance," she says, "but, when I finally got picked to do The Last Boy Scout there was this nudity clause attached that had never been mentioned to me. I told my manager, 'I can't be nude. I'm not signing the contract.' The producers came back and said, 'Forget the nudity, we'll get a body double.' Sometimes nudity is pushed on you because they think you're not smart enough and that you want the part so bad. Nothing doing."

This is a woman some find shy and fragile? A woman who, only eight years ago, was a beauty pageant veteran and first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and, only four years ago, was just breaking out of modeling and into such TV sitcoms as "Living Dolls"? "When I'm pushed to the limit, in life or in a movie, I'm like a cornered cat. I'll scratch your eyes out." Not my eyes, of course, but how about those of her competition? "I really try not to compare myself with other people," she declares. "Four years ago, when I first started, I had a short-term plan and a long-term plan. Everything, in my mind, has gone according to schedule. My role in The Flintstones was written for a blue-eyed, blonde, Sharon Stone-type bombshell. Five years ago, they never would have cast a black woman in a sex-symbol role like this. That recharges me."

How does Berry react to a business that seems to make room for, say, only one Stone, Julia Roberts or Michelle Pfeiffer, not to mention one Whitney Houston or Diana Ross? "It's real hard to sleep when you know you're not getting a shot at something maybe Winona Ryder is," she admits. "I'll test or read for or with anybody, anywhere. I just want to know that I'm getting the same shots as Julia or Winona or Marisa Tomei or Whoopi Goldberg."

Berry utters all this with a fire in her eyes and a tone that suggests she has in mind some firsthand for-instances. "I was up for The Firm," she says, referring to the role of the man-trap who entices Tom Cruise on the beach. "It was just that little scene but I wanted it, because it was in a big film and in a role that didn't call for a black woman. I auditioned for Intersection. I really wanted to be seen for Indecent Proposal. The producer called my manager and said, 'Why would a black woman sell her body for a million dollars?' The fact is, why would any woman sell her body for a million dollars? If you're going to make this movie with anyone, why can't it be with a black woman? I also met the director [John Badham] for Point of No Return, who wouldn't even let me read for it. Anytime I see anybody in a great role, I think, 'God, I could have done this with that.' I saw The Silence of the Lambs, which I auditioned for, and went, 'Ohhhhhh,'" she says, letting a long sigh express her frustration.

She's the first to say she doesn't give up easily, however. "I was turned down originally for the TV miniseries 'Queen,' but when I'm passionate about something, I'll keep coming back. I mean, I'm not going to show up anywhere in costume and invade somebody's space--we all know our Sean Young stories. I do have some pride." One hears how Berry had been a front-runner for playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It, then got passed over for Angela Bassett. "I'd be the first to admit if I tried and didn't get it," she says. "I had just finished 'Queen,' which was really emotional and painful. I met with the director of the Tina Turner movie. Later, I called my agent to say, 'I can't do this movie.' My agent said, 'They want you to screen test!' but I said, 'I'm not ready to play another abused, battered woman. I don't even know who I am right now, except 'Queen.' I'm just going to have to let them cast somebody else."

Which they did: Angela Bassett. "Who was the only one," Berry hastens to observe, "that was supposed to be Tina Turner. I made my peace with the whole situation, so let's celebrate her getting it, which is what really matters." It's tough to say whether Berry or Bassett made the wiser choice. After all, Bassett might be an Oscar nominee, but Berry, surprisingly, was not cited for an Emmy for "Queen." "If I ever felt suicidal in my life," she says, "it was 10 minutes after the Emmy nominations were announced. I was just crushed. After 'Queen' got high ratings, everybody kept saying things like, 'You're going to be nominated for an Emmy, so what are you gonna wear?' and I had started thinking, well, maybe . . . Anyway, when I wasn't nominated, I talked with the director of 'Queen.' It took me days to really understand what he meant when he said, 'Never look to awards for acceptance. Find the rewards in your work.' "

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