Thriller becomes Halle Berry

Halle Berry is excited about her latest psychological thriller, Columbia Pictures’ "Perfect Stranger." "I felt good being part of making a movie that I would want to go see," the 40-year-old Oscar winning actress enthused during a recent interview. "It’s a real date movie, where you can go and get a little escape and have some fun."

"Perfect Stranger," directed by James Foley, poses the question: how far would you go to keep a secret? Berry plays Rowena Price, an investigative reporter who learns that her friend’s murder might be connected to her online chats and subsequent fling with powerful ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). With the help of her colleague Miles Hailey (Giovanni Ribisi), she poses as a temp at his agency and then flirts with him online to learn the truth – discovering that she may not be the only one changing her identity.

The down-to-earth actress is currently dating Versace model Gabriel Aubry and, while understandably cautious and protective of her personal life given past experiences with two previous marriages to baseball star David Justice and musician Eric Benet, seems to be finally in a place of contentment, personally and professionally.

Question: What made you say yes to this movie?

Halle Berry: The story was really interesting. I read so many scripts that by page 35 I can’t even get through the rest but this one was really intriguing and a mystery and kept my brain going, trying to figure it out. I also realized that I really liked this woman and wanted to go on her journey. It’s a lot of psychological stuff going on with her and the movie explores a topic that is very current; the Internet and this world where anybody can be anything they want to be and people converse in this world where nobody is who they say they are. So it’s intriguing and scary at the same time.

Q: What is your own relationship to the Internet?

Berry: When it first came out I loved it and thought, ‘wow, this is a whole new world!’ I loved the fact I could have anonymity and go into chat rooms and not be myself and have honest chats with people, saying I was Susan Brown or someone else I was not. But then when I realized that nobody was being themselves either, so the feeling of having an honest chat with a stranger didn’t feel rewarding to me anymore. I started thinking, ‘we’re all a bunch of weirdoes pretending we are someone we are not and I should stop this!’

Q: Are you still using the Internet and technology to make your life easier?

Berry: I go on-line in my own website as me and participate as me in my chats but I haven’t gone into those chat rooms as someone else. I think the Internet can be great and I love email and have a blackberry, but it is also sad because people are becoming disconnected and we are not writing letters as much as we used to. I try to fight against it and write a hand-written thank you note or write someone a letter and not just pop them an email but we need to fight to preserve some of that human quality of relating to each other I think.

Q: What do you think of on-line dating?

Berry: People are starting to on-line date and meet people and I gather it’s the new social scene and a way to meet people instead of clubs and bars, but there is still an element of fear in that because you don’t know who is really going to show up on the date and that is an aspect of our movie that really gets explored.

Q: How was working with Bruce Willis?

Berry: I had a very small part in his movie "The Last Boy Scout" so we’d worked together before but he didn’t even remember me from then, quite honestly, which was funny!  But then he lived right next door to me when we were putting this movie together so the producer and I talked about how great he would be and I told them he was my neighbor so they suggested I take the script over to him directly and I was very straightforward. I came over, told him ‘here’s a script, read it and I hope you love it and want to do it’ and that was it.

Q: What kind of life do you have these days? How would you describe this time in your life?

Berry: This time is just a really good time in my life. When you reach my age it’s true that you have a sort of calm about yourself. I don’t really care what people think about me or what I do or the choices I make. I just try to be true to me and honestly think about my future. So I feel in a good place: I am still working, I’m in a good place in my personal life and I have everything I could ever have dreamed of wanting for my life and then ten times more. If I died tomorrow, I’d feel satisfied and feel good about what I’ve been able to do and accomplish and overcome.

Q: What do you do when you have time for yourself?

Berry: I started painting about five years ago and that’s become a passion. I do oils on canvas, mixed media, and I’m going to start doing some sculpting class from an artist friend because I have a few months off. I’ve also been playing golf because my boyfriend is a golfer.

Q: Have you had any career expectations post-Oscar?

Berry: I never thought about winning awards. Honestly for me being a woman of color I just thought, ‘let me keep working and keep continuing to make a living and provide for my future and family and have fun’. I never thought in terms of, ‘if I could just win this award, then I’d be happy’ because awards are awards but if I have one on my counter does that mean I’ll eat tonight or my kids will go to college? Awards are great and of course everyone loves to be recognized and patted on the back but I’ve always had a more practical approach and view my job as a job and it’s how I make my living first and foremost.

(Opening this April 25 in theaters in Cebu, "Perfect Stranger" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.)