Scaredy cat - Halle Berry in Gothika
You throw yourself about quite a bit in Gothika, and I understand you had quite a serious injury on set.
Yes, I had a broken arm. That came about in a scene that didn't really involve any stunts. Robert Downey just twisted my arm in the wrong way and it just broke.
Were you angry?
No, we're friends, it was just one of those freaky things that happened making this movie. We stopped filming for eight weeks while I had a full-blown cast on, then after that my full arm cast was reduced to a small, very thin cast from my wrist to my elbow, and then I finished a month of shooting with that little cast on.
Was it the same arm as the one bandaged in the film?
No it was the other arm, but we thought that would be a good camouflage... I think a lot of people maybe missed the cast because they were focussing on the arm with the bandage.
You were also injured on the set of Catwoman weren't you?
Yes! I was standing there and a light hit me on the head. It hasn't stopped me - I love physical roles. When you give one hundred per cent to physical roles you're bound to get some little dings and dangs.
Were you aware of Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika's director), and did you have any involvement in his signing up?
When Joel Silver asked me to play Miranda the first issue we had was to find a director that would take this genre filmmaking and bring some different edge to it, because you know there's nothing new about a suspense horror thriller. Mathieu was someone who was really hot from the movies that he'd done recently, and he sort of has a European feel, and Joel thought that he would bring some of that element to an old American kind of movie.
Did you use any of your favourite horror films when researching the role?
I was tempted to go back and watch The Shining and some real great thriller/horror movies, but I resisted. I thought "this has to be something that stands on its own", and I didn't want it to be a remake or copy of things I'd seen before.
I see you were quoted as saying that you were actually quite scared at some of the things you were doing as you were making the movie, is that true?
I think it was creepy rather than scary. I mean, we know we're making a movie and that this stuff isn't really happening, but it was a little creepy to be in these really dark, dungeonous places. It was always very cold and there was just some element in the air that made us all feel that sometimes you weren't alone, truly alone, and that lent to the spookiness of the film-making.
I understand you also had an experience of the paranormal when you were making the Dorothy Dandridge TV movie.
Yeah, people only believe in ghosts once they've had an experience. I think by our nature we're very sceptical, but I did have a couple of experiences on 'Dandridge' where I knew, and all the people around me knew, that her spirit or some spirit was around me all the time. Nothing really outlandish happened but it was just a feeling that we all would get; strange things would happen that couldn't be really explained any other way unless something supernatural was happening.
Did the script for Gothika evolve during the production?
The script changed moment to moment, it was always a work in progress. In many ways it's a totally different script from the very first script that I ever read.
Were there significant differences between what you read and what we see on screen?
Yes and no. The whole story didn't change at all, but the relationship between my character and Robert Downey's character changed. They had a romantic relationship when I first read the script, but that became more of a red herring. Penelope (Cruz) in one of the drafts never got out of the institution. She was kind of damned to this horrific life.
What did you do to get into a terrified frame of mind for the role?
Ancient Chinese secrets! No, there are all kinds of tools that I use, but my challenge was trying to find levels of the character. I really tried hard not to play one note of terror throughout the movie but to find levels of terror. A lot of the times I couldn't speak, or there wasn't another actor in the room, or there was some special effect that was going to be put in place after the movie was finished, so I had to be really creative with my imagination.
Do you have any response to Charlize Theron's comment criticising you for taking the Bond role after winning the Oscar? (Theron reportedly said "Note to self: do not become Halle Berry.")
(Smiling sweetly) I don't think she could become me if she tried.
Did the fact that your mother was a psychiatric nurse bring any bearing to the way you approached the character?
I think initially that made me respond to the part because it felt familiar to me, because my mother was a nurse on a faculty for 35 years - that's practically all of my life, so I was really used to hearing her talk about it and tell me stories - it was a world that I knew.
Do you ever rewatch your famous Oscar speech?
I watched it two times since that night, and mainly the reason for watching it was because I was so out of my body that I didn't remember what I said, so I wanted to go back and see. I felt like I talked on way too long and I wish I could have edited it, but then I felt that it was a great moment for me in my life and I knew that it was about more than me so I thought it was ok - it was what it was.
I gather you've just finished filming Catwoman. Do you have any response to the criticism of your costume?
I love the look of the film. I think it's very modern, it's edgy, it's very much reflecting who women are today and who they're constantly evolving into. As for negativity, there's always negativity, you can't please everybody. I think as I've got older I've really learnt to accept that. I also remember that there was a lot of negativity around X Men, particularly with comic book aficionados. Nothing about that movie made them happy initially, and then after the end of the second movie they loved it.
Are you going to do X-men 3?
I have no idea. I haven't been offered it. I don't know if there's going to be an X-Men 3 for sure.
And any news on your Jinx spin-off project?
I'm not so sure that's going to happen, I think not before the next Bond movie. Maybe, maybe not. Now there's Catwoman, and I don't know how many of these women I can play.
And what's next for you?
I'm doing a movie for Oprah Winfrey from a famous book in black literature called Their Eyes Were Watching God and then another movie that I'm co-producing with Fox called October Squall. It harks back to Monster's Ball in feeling - it's a little character driven film and a very heavy issue, and I'm really looking forward to that.
