In the wake of her freshly finalized divorce last year from crooner Eric Benet, she found herself fretting that maybe she just wasn’t marriage material, given her unfortunate track record of being victimized by infidelity and spousal abuse. Here, Halle opens up about reprising her role as Storm, about her biological clock ticking, about Oprah’s Legend’s Ball and she even updates us about her philandering ex-husband
Summation: In the wake of her freshly finalized divorce last year from crooner Eric Benet, she found herself fretting that maybe she just wasn’t marriage material, given her unfortunate track record of being victimized by infidelity and spousal abuse. Here, Halle opens up about reprising her role as Storm, about her biological clock ticking, about Oprah’s Legend’s Ball and she even updates us about her philandering ex-husband
Caption: The ravishing Halle Berry
Halle Berry’s X-Men
By Kam Williams
With X-Men 3, Halle Berry is back on the big screen for the first time in two years, unless you count her voiceover work last year as Cappy in the animated feature Robots. The Oscar-winning actress, who turns 40 in August, had been out of the public eye for awhile, recently returned to the gossip pages after the paparazzi caught her canoodling with Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry.
The whirlwind romance with the broad-shouldered, 6’2� blond boy-toy reportedly began last December when the two fell in love while shooting some Versace ads together. This relationship comes on the heels of the bronze beauty’s brief fling with Michael Ealy, her cocoa-colored co-star in Their Eyes Were Watching God.
In the wake of her freshly finalized divorce last year from crooner Eric Benet, she found herself fretting that maybe she just wasn’t marriage material, given her unfortunate track record of being victimized by infidelity and spousal abuse. Here, Halle opens up about reprising her role as Storm, about her biological clock ticking, about Oprah’s Legend’s Ball and she even updates us about her philandering ex-husband, but the coy cutie buttons her lips when it comes to her new beau.
BSN: Hi Halle, were you responsible for your character Storm enjoying an expanded role in X-Men 3?
HB: This time around, I just asked, “Please, please, please, can Storm have a voice? It’s not about me having more, but, if I’m going to be on for ten minutes, can I say something important for ten minutes, because I think Storm does a little bit more in the comic books, and the fans aren’t happy.� And then Brett [director Brett Ratner] came on board. And it’s really due to Brett, because Brett felt the same way, that Storm needs a voice. And he saw to it that this time it actually happened.
BSN: Would you like to have a superpower like Storm or one or the other X-Men in real-life?
HB: I have a hard time trying to expand my brain to even fathom that, because I know it’s not really possible. Keeping in line with what this movie is about, I would keep myself exactly the way I am. I would stay this mortal person that I am, and do life the way that I’ve been doing it. Because that’s what I know and that’s what feels good to me. And I honestly don’t know if I would choose one of these powers. I don’t want to change who I am. I don’t want to pick a superpower. I want to be just how I happen to come here. That’s good enough for me.
BSN: What was it like to participate in Oprah’s Legends Ball?
HB: That was a wonderful, once in a lifetime event, for sure, to be there with such legendary women. Forget about the TV show. What was most meaningful was to be able to go up to each one of them personally and say what was in my heart. To look each one of those ladies in the face and say what I really wanted to say about they inspired me over the course of my life. To be able to do that and give each one a big hug, and say “Thank you!� was really the most meaningful part of it.
BSN: What sorts of feelings did you share with them?
HB: A lot of it’s personal. I had some very personal moments away from the camera with Maya Angelou, and Tina Turner, and Diahann Carroll. And Coretta Scott King. Thank God I got to speak to her, because I’d never met her and she’s since passed away. That is a memory that I’m always going to have now, because I got to say what I always wanted to say to her.
BSN: Are you ready to talk about your new boyfriend, Gabriel?
HB: No, sorry I ain’t talking about him.
BSN: Can you at least say whether you’re planning to start a family any time soon?
HB: You know what? Here’s the thing. You say something once, and then it has a life of its own. Then everywhere I go, somebody asks me about it again, and then it keeps having a life. And that’s how it becomes this big snowball.
BSN: Then this is your chance to clear it up once and for all.
HB: [laughs] But you see, the fact that you’re asking again, adds another layer to the snowball.
BSN: Please.
HB: Okay, I’ll tell you. Of course, I’d like to have a baby, and have a family. I mean I’m getting to the age where for women something usually just kicks in and you start to feel maternal.
BSN: How long have you felt this way?
HB: I’ve felt it since I was 30, that I need to have a family, but it just hasn’t happened for various and sundry reasons. Hopefully, that’s where I’m looking for something more in my life.
BSN: Are you interested in taking a break from acting?
HB: No, work is great, and it’s provided me a lot of happiness and comfort and all those things. But I’m looking for that deeper layer of life. And it feels like children is that for me. So, hopefully, it will come into my life, when the time is right.
BSN: Does Eric Benet still try to call you hoping to reconcile?
HB: Un-unh, no, he doesn’t try to call.
BSN: Would you consider adoption as an option?
HB: Oh yeah, sure. My sister [Heidi] has two adopted children.
BSN: Would you go overseas to adopt like a lot of celebrities seem to do nowadays?
HB: If I go that route, I think I would adopt a child from here. There are many children right here in this country who need homes. That’s if I adopted. I don’t know if I ever will, but if I did, that’s what I’d do.
BSN: What advice would you give to aspiring black actresses trying to break into show business?
HB: I would say you just really have to love it. Honestly, if you don’t just love it, love it, love it, then don’t do it, do it, do it, because it’s a tough industry. Many industries are today, no matter what you want to do, but in this one, you’re faced with a lot of personal and public criticism and scrutiny. There’s a lot of rejection, so you need a tough skin and a certain amount of strength that if you don’t have, you have to develop really quickly. Therefore, this job isn’t for everybody. Not everybody can withstand that pressure and that public scrutiny.
BSN: You must have a good attitude about criticism, since you showed up at the Razzies to accept the Worst Actress Award for Catwoman.
HB: Yeah, that was fun. You know what? This is really true. When I got there, and I walked out, they were so happy that I was there, that I had a real emotional moment. I know I was there to get the Worst Actress Award, but I had a real emotional moment when I realized that none of it matters, whether you’re getting the Best Actress or the Worst Actress Award. The love that I got from the people who were in that room, who had voted me the Worst was sort of odd and twisted, yet it felt really good to be there, actually. So, I was really glad I went and had fun with it.
BSN: Will we see you in the Catsuit again in a sequel?
HB: I loved my Catwoman, but I doubt that’s going to happen. It would’ve been fun, because I really loved playing that character. We could’ve had a better script, granted. I wish we had a second chance to do it again, and to do it differently. And we would do it differently. But I doubt that we’re going to get that chance.
BSN: What’s your favorite of your movies?
HB: Any time I’m channel surfing and I see myself, I’m like “Oh! Turn that off! I can’t even look at it. So, I couldn’t even tell you. I usually see them once, at the premiere. Or twice, if I have to, and never see them again.
BSN: Which film are you most proud of?
HB: Probably Dorothy Dandridge, because that was the first project that I produced. It was a labor of love, and I wanted to tell her story so much. When I think back about my happiest moments, it was when that movie got made. At the first screening of it, I thought, “Wow! I had an idea, and we did it!� It was surreal to see the finished product, before the awards, before the accolades, from just a thought in our minds.
BSN: Do you ever feel any pressure to present yourself in public in a certain way?
HB: I didn’t used to, but now with all these paparazzi just out of control, and all these magazines that support seeing people at the dry cleaners, or going in and out of the doctor’s office, it has added a new pressure. Because when you just go out being a normal person, you get put on this “When bad clothes happen to good people list.� Or they find a zit and they zero-in on it. Or it’s, “Look, she’s got cellulite.� It starts to make you feel like you can’t go out anymore and just be a normal girl, and go without your makeup.
BSN: What’s up next for you?
HB: Perfect Stranger which I just finished with Bruce Willis. It’s a suspense thriller about the darkness of the Internet and how everybody has secrets and nobody is who you think they are. My character gets all tangled up in some mess. And then Things We lost in the Fire is with Benicio Del Toro for DreamWorks. That’s an art movie about a woman with two little children who loses her husband and has to deal with the death. And Benicio comes into her life and helps her deal with the loss.
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