FEMALE STAR OF THE YEAR: HALLE BERRY
By NOE GOLD of Variety
Since her Oscar win for "Monster's Ball," Halle Berry (news) hasn't exactly taken the heavy drama route. Instead, her career has been marked by ass-kicking women with names like Jinx, Storm and Patience Phillips, otherwise known as Catwoman.
In the process, Berry has shown she has the stuff to be an action heroine and a box office draw, with movies like "Die Another Day" ($432 million worldwide) and "X2" ($406 million) proving she has the goods to carry her end.
While the upcoming "Catwoman," directed by Frenchman Pitof, the visual effects man ("Messenger: Joan of Arc") turned helmer ("Vidocq"), has plenty of thrills and chills, the story of Ms. Phillips, whose work for a nefarious cosmetics company gives her catlike powers of resurrection, stealth and agility, has deeper psychological dimensions that play to Berry's serious actor side. It also gave her major opportunities for self-discovery in the process, she says.
Before shooting began in October, this year's ShoWest female star of the year spent grueling time getting in peak physical shape with her trainer. She had to study gymnastics, stunt training, fight training, a dance movement called Capoeira based on animal nuances, cat movement, mannerisms and psychology.
"There is still a fair amount of action heroine in this movie --- that was a given," she says. But preparing for it "wasn't just about getting the body in shape and putting on the costume. It turned out to be a really good acting job that needed to happen."
Indeed, when the project was first announced, Berry was one of a number of actors who were up for the part originally played onscreen by Michelle Pfeiffer (news) in "Batman Returns" (Ashley Judd (news) was attached for a time). But once Berry showed serious interest, there was no question who would wear the tights. And for her, the process was one of revelation.
"Initially, the idea of playing Catwoman just seemed exciting. I had no idea what would come to me until I started delving into the character," she says. "It's much more than a one-dimensional comicbook, and it wasn't until I got into the process that I discovered there was more in the script and that I could add more to it from my personal experience."
Producer Denise Di Novi maintains that Catwoman is much more than a garden-variety action figure. "Catwoman isn't really an action hero --- that's kind of what's really great about the movie. Even in the comic," she says, "she's not a superhero --- she's an antihero.
"The part is really complex," she adds. "Halle is really playing three characters with three distinct looks, three sets of wigs and wardrobe.
"There is a lot going on about female identity and empowerment, wondering if someone will love you if they know you have a dark side."
Berry says the process was a collaborative one, which took shape as the creative principals began to hammer out motivations for her character.
"Because it was a whole movie devoted to this comicbook character, we tried to bring some gravity to it, give her a real emotional life, give her reasons to have inhabited this persona, why she had to become Catwoman in order to survive," she says.
"She had a lot more depth by the time Pitof got involved," adds Berry. "Pitof loves women and isn't afraid of a woman being strong and powerful; (co-star) Benjamin Bratt (news) is the same way. And with Denise, who is such a girl's girl and is for women's empowerment, everybody is all for this woman rising up. By the time we put our heads together, she became a character that was pretty significant and very complicated."
And for Berry, the process became one of self-discovery as well. "For me," she says, "it was a perfect time to play a character that was in search of and in need of feeling and finding her own sense of power and self and realizing that she really is OK in the world just the way she is."
Art imitates life, then? "Usually, when I look at my career," she adds, "when movies have come my way --- it's because it's provided me with what I needed on a real level in my life, and so usually it's been a cathartic experience by the time every movie is over. This one is no different. The subject matter that I have to deal with in this movie has come to me at a perfect time."
Robots (2005) (filming)
Catwoman (2004)
Gothika (2003)
X2 (2003)
Die Another Day (2002)
Monster's Ball (2001)
Swordfish (2001)
X-Men (2002)
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (news)* (TV) (1999)
Why Do Fools fall in Love (1998)
Bulworth (1998)
The Wedding (TV) (1998)
B*A*P*S (1997)
The Rich Man's Wife (1996)
Race the Sun (1996)
Executive Decision (1996)
Losing Isaiah (1995)
Solomon & Sheba (TV) (1995)
A Century of Women (miniseries) (1994)
The Flintstones (1994)
The Program (1993)
Father Hood (1993)
Queen (miniseries) (1993)
Boomerang (1992)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Strictly Business (1991)
Jungle Fever (1991)
* also served as exec producer
Select awards:
For "Monster's Ball": Academy Award, AFI Film Award, Berlin Intl. Film Fest's Silver Bear, National Board of Review (news - web sites), SAG
For "Dorothy Dandridge": Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG