Halle Berry: "Bondage"

Oscar winner (Monster's Ball) Halle Berry is multi-tasking. She's got several projects with both action and dramatic focus that she's producing and she's painting her Christmas cards. She's James Bond's equal, not just a sexy Bond girl in the new film Die Another Day and she's working on the X-Men sequel. When we spoke with her at the Four Season's hotel recently, her hot coral T-Bird from the movie was in the driveway and Halle was in her element. Wearing a fitted beige gauze shirt and monogram "H" pendant, the gorgeous and poised actress was willing to share the latest about her Bond film, future projects and her feelings about racism in the movie biz.

TeenHollywood: Did you make sure that your "Bond Girl" character was more than just a sex object?

Halle: If all she did was sleep with Bond I probably wouldn't have taken the role. She was much more empowered. She was a trained NSA assassin from the beginning. It got better and better and evolved once we got together and met the writers. We had ideas along the way and things just got richer.

TeenHollywood: How hard was it to keep a straight face and deliver those Bondish double entendre lines?

Halle: (smiling) How many times did we go 'Oh my God. Do I really have to say that'? It's tough but that's one of the things, over the years, that Bond aficionados have really loved about the movies. If you can make those lines work, it's really great and when they don't work, it's really bad. Is this one really necessary? How can we tweak this one? Is there another one that works better? We always worked on that. You know when you get it right. We would crack up laughing. I ruined so many great takes of Pierce's by laughing.

TeenHollywood: Did you ever expect that action would be part of your career?

Halle: I never thought it would. As my career was developing there weren't many women in action movies that were instruments to propel their careers forward. Men were action heroes. Women are becoming more empowered and audiences are wanting to see women in those roles and it's become a reality for me. That's why I want to remake "Foxy Brown". I thought what a great name that people can identify with and let's just change the story and make it more modern.

TeenHollywood: How much more filming on Bond did you have when you won the Oscar?

Halle: I had about a month to go. I also got nominated while I was working. I'd started the movie and a week into it, I got the nomination so they were with me for the entire road to Oscar.

TeenHollywood: How has Oscar changed your life?

Halle: In some ways my life is exactly the same and in other ways I think there's a newfound respect that I get from my peers and the industry. This is the first time in my career that I've had six projects in development at once. I'm usually scrimping and scraping 'now what am I going to do next'? They're taking me more seriously when I say I want to produce something.

TeenHollywood: Would you have taken a role in a popcorn movie like this if you had won the Oscar before?

Halle: I think so. I don't really see it as popcorn. I saw the character and someone who was different from me. I saw it as empowering. I got to be sexy and strong at the same time. That's a great role for a woman to play in a movie that goes around the world. I think you have to mix art with commerce to have a lasting career. You can make little, great movies but what's the point of producing art if people don't really get to see it?

TeenHollywood: Have you been a Bond fan?

Halle: I am now. I saw them as a kid and never understood them. I loved seeing the women. I loved seeing all the glamour of it all but I really didn't understand it. I was too busy doing really, really, girlie things to get into Bond movies.

TeenHollywood: So is Pierce your favorite Bond then?

Halle: Sean Connery, I think those two are neck-in-neck. I think somehow Pierce is different in this movie. He's aging a bit and settling into his role of Bond. After this movie, the next person to come along, they'll have Pierce Brosnan shoes to fill.

TeenHollywood: What drives you and keeps you going?

Halle: It used to be a need to be liked and accepted. In my adult life I still suffered from that. I'm feeling a little bit more relaxed at least within my career and Oscar has certainly helped me in that area. I want to help make opportunities for other people. Three of the things I want to produce I won't be acting in. I just want to bring stories to the screen that I really care about and maybe give other people chances to stand where I got to stand.

TeenHollywood: Do you have any insecurities left now?

Halle:[laughs] How long are we in this room? I think that's the nature of human beings. We're all insecure. That makes for the best art when you are operating on some need to win and need to survive.

TeenHollywood: What is your anti-drug in life?

Halle: Two things. Work and I'm a mother now of a year and a half and that's been a real natural high for me. Some days when you come home from work and you are tired and stressed out and you're thinking of all the things that have gone wrong, when you are with a child, you just get to play and have fun and it reminds me what this [life] experience is all about. Better than any drug I can imagine.

TeenHollywood: What's this story about Pierce saving your life on set?

Halle: He did. We were doing this love scene and I was trying to be 'Jinxie" and way too sexy for my own good. I pulled out this knife trying to give the air of 'danger, danger' and I start cutting this fig and it gets lodged in my throat and there was no air. Right away he got up and jumped behind me. I don't know what he did but the fig just came projecting out. I was so stunned. We all just sat down for about fifteen minutes. It became so unsexy!

TeenHollywood: Do you watch that scene now and crack up laughing?

Halle: We crack up because we know what really happened. He jumped up and he had on these little briefy things and I barely have on anything and the lights are up. We're on top of the bed and the whole crew was staring at us. It was really funny when it was all over.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about some of the little 40th anniversary tributes in the film, like your "Dr. No" bikini?

Halle: The movie has many moments recreated from all the movies that everyone's loved over the years and that's a big moment. (Ursula Andress rising out of the sea). I did ask for a lycra bathing suit. I don't want what she had to have back in those days. She was obviously in better shape [we don't think so, Halle!].

TeenHollywood: You and Winona have both been in the spotlight for legal problems. Any comments on what's going on with her?

Halle: Our cases are very different. She's been convicted now of a felony. I don't know how that will effect her. The public scrutiny has been the same. I think it's possible to come through anything in life. It's what she does with it and how she deals from this moment on. I don't really have any advice. I'm more concerned about Bush trying to invade Iraq than worried about what Winona Ryder stole from Saks Fifth Avenue.

TeenHollywood: How did you and Rosamund Pike train for that great knife fight?

Halle: That fight was very choreographed because we didn't know what we were doing. We could very easily have taken an eye out. We practiced in a room where nothing was going on but when we shot it, we were on a rig that moved backwards, forwards, sideways. We had smoke and wind, things flying around the room. So it became a hundred times more difficult to be safe.

TeenHollywood: Your role as Dorothy Dandridge was fabulous. Is there anyone else in real life you would like to play?

Halle: I think that was a signature piece of my career as far as a bio or bringing a real person to life. I don't think I would ever be that inspired or that impassioned about another person. But who knows. As I grow I may be inspired by someone else.

TeenHollywood: What do you do really well in your everyday life?

Halle: I think I paint really well. I've been really working at that part of my art and it's been a great form of expression and a stress reliever. I paint people, scenery, still life, sometimes abstract or just get going with the paint and make something. They are going to be Christmas gifts this year.

TeenHollywood: Do you feel a change for Black actors in Hollywood since your Oscar?

Halle: I don't think one moment in time can change an entire industry that's been plagued with racism, so no. But I knew that when I stood there and said "This means that everybody else has a chance', I meant that they can now dream. Now that we've gone to the moon, we can go to Mars. Once somebody saw that it was possible then their hearts and spirits get renewed and energized. They don't give up but work harder. Young Black actors come up to me and say 'you go" and 'I'm going to do it too'.

TeenHollywood: What is coming up for you?

Halle: There is a romantic comedy in the mix. There's that remake of "Foxy Brown". There's another heavy, dark, small movie. There's a movie that I'm going to do for Oprah Winfrey called "Their Eyes Were Watching God" based on a book. After I finish "X-Men 2", I'm going to take three months off to regroup and work on getting them all together and whichever one comes together first will be the next one that I do.

TeenHollywood: What kind of music do you like?

Halle: I traditionally like jazz and old jazz like Coltrane and Miles Davis but this morning I was listening to India Arie, her new CD and Nora Jones. Those are my two chill out, relax, hear something positive people.

TeenHollywood: What do you turn to during the tough times in your life?

Halle: My faith and my family. That's what gets me through.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.