Halle Berry: GLORY, GLORY, HALLE-LUJAH

Halle Berry has never shied away from using her stunning good looks to great effect in big Hollywood to-dos like X-Men and Swordfish. But now she's hoping to show off more than sex appeal by starring opposite Heath Ledger and Billy Bob Thornton in the gritty indie Monster's Ball. And judging from what she's already been through in real life--an abusive father, a violent boyfriend, a bad marriage to a sports star and a car accident that led to mountains of bad press--there's plenty to mine.

_____________________________________________________________________

Beauty is just about a requirement for becoming a leading lady in Hollywood. Halle Berry has always known that, and drew upon her generous assets to get a leg up in Hollywood. She played the siren in Strictly Business, and then the girl who steals Robin Givens's thunder in Boomerang. She was the only thing worth looking at in the football flick The Program, the campy blockbuster The Flintstones, the Kurt Russell terrorist thriller Executive Decision and the flaccid farce B*A*P*S, to name a few.

If her films lacked distinction, Berry made up for them with her celebrity. Offscreen, she stood out as the lovely who looked nothing less than sensational when appearing at red-carpet events. Her brief marriage to major-league baseball star David Justice provided many megawatt photo ops and was fodder for gossip columns. By the mid '90s, Berry's face was popping up everywhere--even in glossy Revlon ads.

Though at first glance one might assume this former cheerleader, prom queen, fashion model and Miss USA first runner-up could forever be content peddling her pulchritude, there are signs she's interested in revealing what's lurking beneath all that beauty. This is a woman who, after all, refrained from showering for several days to get into the part of a homeless crack addict in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. Who, just as her career was gaining momentum, gladly tossed her glamorous image aside to play another crack addict, this time a very unlovable one, opposite Jessica Lange in Losing Isaiah. Who dared take a bite out of Warren Beatty's controversial, much-ballyhooed film Bulworth. And who, by the late '90s, took a chance on producing and starring in the HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, for which she won a Golden Globe. The payoff was instant--she was cast as the good mutant Storm in the big-deal blockbuster X-Men and picked up a $2.5 million paycheck to costar with John Travolta in Swordfish. But Berry also wanted to prove she could sink her teeth into a challenge, which is why she took an enormous pay cut to costar with Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs in the dark drama Monster's Ball. For those who like to take their Berry with sugar on top, in 2002 she'll cause a Storm again when she starts shooting X-Men 2.

When Berry pulls into my driveway and gets out of her champagne-colored Range Rover, she looks a decade younger than her 33 years. She's wearing a white tank top adorned with the letters FWB--Funky White Bitch, chanteuse Nikka Costa's pseudonym--the W of which is curved into the shape of a woman's backside. It's been only a few days since the terrorist attacks occurred at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and Berry tells me she's in a funk. She's looking for a way to help those in need, which she does by donating blood to the Red Cross and answering phones for the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" telethon. When she settles in the living room of my house, I offer her a Pepperidge Farm double chocolate chip cookie to cheer her up.

"I can't," Berry says. "I'm diabetic." I knew that, but wasn't thinking when I bought them. She opts for some melon instead ("there's plenty of sugar in that, too"), and we settle into the next few hours of conversation.

HALLE BERRY: A few years ago I vowed that I'd never talk to Movieline again because in 1995 they did a story on me and titled it "Halle Terror." I'll never forget that. It was the first horrific thing that happened to me in my little show-business world.

LAWRENCE GROBEL: So why are you talking to Movieline now?

A: My publicist talked me into it. Do you find publications take your stories and make them into what they want?

Q: That's a journalists nightmare, but it won't happen here. Though I can't promise the publication won't get clever with a title again.

A: So what's Movieline trying to say about me right now?

Q: That you're taking a turn in your career with Monster's Ball. What piqued your interest in it?

A: It's the kind of movie I've always strived to do, but haven't always been able to. There aren't that many great parts for women, so you veer off and do other things. I get a chance to leave behind the glamour that got me into this business, and I love when I get to do that. I really get off on taking on a challenge. This character is totally tortured, and I love playing tortured.

Q: Does the film deal with racism?

A: There are three generations in one family that deal with racism. Billy Bob Thornton is a product of his father's teachings, but he's on the fence about these ideals and if he should carry them on. His son is played by Heath Ledger, who wants to go in a new direction. It's their family struggle.

Q: And you develop a relationship with Thornton's character?

A: We share similar pain because we've both lost people in our lives and we both have guilt, because I was a shitty mother, he was a shitty father--we're two people doing the best we can given the lot we had in life.

Q: Do you think the film is any good?

A: I like it, but I haven't seen it finished. I need all the bells and whistles to get it. Otherwise, I'm just way too critical. I'll think, This is the worst piece of shit. Why did I sign up to do this? My careers over.

Q: Is Billy Bob Thornton as sexy as Angelina Jolie says he is?

A: Yes.

Q: What is it about him?

A: I really get it. I didn't at first. Not that I didn't think he was an attractive or talented man. When they told me I was going to have a mad, passionate love scene with him, I thought we should meet first because I didn't know if we were going to have that. But the minute I met him--it's a thing. What makes it so powerful is you can't describe it. It's not the way he looks or speaks or what he knows or doesn't know, it's just something about him that most women will find sexy. It's not about being physically gorgeous, it comes from another place.

Q: Angelina warned any woman who might have eyes for Billy that she'd beat her up.

A: I read that, too! [Laughs] I did nothing with her man that's not on the screen! But I could see her saying that, given what he's like and given that many women will go for a man even if he's married.

Q: Did you ever talk to Angelina to perhaps calm her fears?

A: No. She came to our set just one day, really briefly.

Q: Just to check you out?

A: [Laughs] Well, she didn't seem threatened, so ... it was all good.

Q: What do you think about the two of them wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks?

A: It's interesting. I like my husband's blood in his body where it best serves him. But whatever makes them feel more connected. Billy told me he gets up in the morning and puts the cross of her blood on his chest, and that's how he feels connected to her. God bless them.

Q: She's called him the most amazing man she's ever met. Who's the most amazing man you've ever met?

A: [Long pause] My husband [Eric Benét]. I've met some pretty intelligent men, but what would make a man amazing to me is somebody who could love me unconditionally. I always wanted a father in my life, never having had one. Eric is amazing because he loves me no matter what--when I fuck up, when I'm less than perfect. In my history with men, when I show signs of being not the beauty queen they signed up to date, they split. But Eric loves me with all of my flaws and inconsistencies and double standards. He says that's what he loves about me. He's the first man who hasn't run in the other direction when he's found out that I'm not what he thought I was.

Q: What's your greatest flaw?

A: I have many flaws. I can be very inconsistent with how I feel about things, which makes it hard to have relationships. I change with the wind. I hate that about myself. Sometimes I believe in religion, and two days later I'll say, "I don't believe a thing about what the Bible says." I justify it by thinking that I'm evolving. I want to be able to change my mind.

Pages: 1 2 3