Halle Berry: Ripe Berry

Q: Having had love troubles of your own, could you relate to her?

A: Yes, most women could.

Q: To get the part of Carmen Jones, Dorothy showed up unexpectedly at Otto Preminger's office in character. Have you ever pulled a stunt like that?

A: Not really like that, but for Losing Isaiah, I had to go in as that character and do the crying scenes 50 times, because the studio didn't want me. I wasn't going to leave until I got it. I ended up in the emergency room after the screen test with scratched corneas, because each time I started the scene it had to be as if I'd never been crying, so my makeup artist kept putting Visine in my eyes and the dropper kept hitting my eyeball.

Q: Dorothy talks about her beauty quite a few times in the film. Do you think she was vain? A: I think so. I don't think she realized all the other things she had to offer.

Q: Do you have moments of panic when you think about aging in Hollywood?

A: Uh-huh, I see it, but I'm not going to go fix it, because it's who I am. I admire women who grow old gracefully. The ones with their faces all pulled back at 60 trying to look 30--God bless them, but there's something not right about that for me.

Q: Do you have a good driver's license picture?

A: No, and you can't see it. [Laughs]

Q: I love that moment when Dorothy picks up her dress from the front desk of a hotel and the clerk, assuming she works for someone else, says, "Your lady must have paid for it." Have you ever had a similar experience?

A: I feel that way when I go into certain department stores, which will remain nameless. I'm just a black person trying to shoplift, for all they know. Then when they realize it's me, it's like, "Oh! Ms. Berry, can we help you?"

Q: I understand some of your mother's family, who are white, distanced themselves from your mother after she married your father, who is black. Did your fame have an interesting effect on some of those people?

A: Yeah, and it's hard to really embrace them after you've been denied in the first place. On my black side, too, there are relatives we never even knew because to them my mother was just the white bitch with the two little half-breed kids. Honestly. So now they come out of the woodwork--you know, "This is your cousin and I need to know if you can ..."

Q: Did you mature early, physically?

A: I was probably about 16. Before that, I was a chubster. A magazine recently accused me of having a nose job but they picked a picture of me when I was about 5'2" and 140 pounds, so everything on my face was bigger.

Q: How did you learn the facts of life?

A: We had sexual encyclopedias and I learned from my mom what it was when I was five years old. In fact, my earliest memory is learning all about how sex works. My sister and I both waited until we were older in life to have sex because it wasn't a mystery.

Q: What's the best advice your mom ever gave you?

A: Recently she said, "Before you get married again, please let me spend a week alone with the person." I don't think she means it literally, but next time I should involve her in the process. My mom is always dead-on about people.

Q: Do you tend to ignore red flags in relationships?

A: I have. The flags would be waving and flying high and I would say, "I don't see that, because I don't want to see that." Today, the minute I see it, it's like, "Sorry, don't really have time for that today."

Q: What did you learn about yourself from your marriage to David Justice?

A: I learned more after the divorce, when I was alone. It's been three years and the good thing is that I'm finally over it. I learned more about what I need and not just what I want--they're two very different things.

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