Halle Berry whips it up

By MICHELE MANELIS

She's not merely the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress (Monster's Ball), Halle Berry is also the first woman of colour to play the lead in a blockbuster.

Well, potential blockbuster. This US$90 million ($1.34 billion) action movie, based on the Batman comic-book character, has taken some rough criticism and hasn't fared well at the box office either (it debuted in third place with only US$16.7 million behind The Bourne Supremacy and I, Robot), but Berry is optimistic Catwoman will see the second of its nine lives.

"I loved playing Catwoman. She's an iconic character, and, like Catwoman, I've evolved into a woman who's pretty okay with my sexuality," says Berry. "It's taken me a while to get here but I think I've finally arrived at being really okay with myself and in my skin.

"I've realised that sensuality and sexuality really comes from some place inside. It's not about the lingerie you have on or how great your hair looks. It comes from a deep place in your soul," she says.

"I'm horrified that women today in their 30s are already having plastic surgery. It's a shame that they're mutilating their faces. Sure, Catwoman is a popcorn movie, but there is a little message underneath: beauty and confidence comes from somewhere else.

"Despite her glory and her sexy suit and her beauty, she's fighting to discover who she really is. That's the message I want to bring forward to women."

Right. Though Berry's intentions are admirable, it's doubtful whether the average woman will take to heart this looks-don't-really-matter missive from one of the world's leading beauties - who also happens to moonlight as one of Revlon's esteemed spokesmodels.

It would be a little like Donald Trump preaching to the homeless that money doesn't buy happiness.

Sitting with Berry at a photographic studio in Los Angeles, she is evidently intelligent, unaffected and likeable. Perhaps because of her troubled life offscreen (she is going through a painful divorce from her second husband, singer Eric Benet), her publicist ensures that we stay on the subject of the movie.

The film tells the story of a painfully introverted designer who works for a cosmetics company and becomes entangled in a corporate conspiracy. Eventually she is murdered and a mysterious Egyptian cat brings her back to life. The new Patience is no longer timid. She becomes the butt-kicking, morally ambiguous superhero with cat-like abilities.

Directed by Pitof (this second-time French director goes by one name), the failings of Catwoman don't rest on Berry's shoulders.

The cliche-ridden script and flashy action sequences don't do the movie any favours, but most the criticism in the US is a result of Pitof's camera lingering on Berry's famously well-toned curves, Catwoman's over-the-top sexuality, and the much talked about costume (or lack thereof).

A few days later at a Barcelona press conference, Berry addresses her detractors.

"The fact that Catwoman has been reduced to someone who's too sexy is the hardest pill for me to swallow. Yes, she wears a sexy costume, but all the Catwomen throughout history have worn sexy costumes [as evidenced by Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Lee Merriweather, and Michelle Pfeiffer].

"They've all had a tight leather suit with ears and a whip. We didn't invent that. It's really sad for me that that has become the focus when she's as smart as she is sexy," Berry says, heatedly. "She's much more than just a sexy woman walking around in her suit.

"And, on the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a woman being in touch with her sexuality. Throughout history women have been somewhat oppressed, and we've been led to believe if we're sexy, we're demeaning ourselves.

"If you think about the great male movie stars, the best of the best also have great sex appeal. They use it and they're not judged by it. But if you're a woman, we're somehow diminished by it instead of uplifted by it."

Berry didn't make contact with any of her Catwoman predecessors. "I purposely didn't want to talk them. I didn't want to watch their work, I didn't want to copy or mimic, I wanted to find my own Catwoman and bring my own authenticity to it and not re-do what somebody has already done. Otherwise, what would the point be?"

Berry, who can be more selective about her roles than most actresses in Hollywood, is adamant that she would be more than happy to don the tights again and pick up the whip.

"I'd be there in a heartbeat. It's funny. By the end of this movie I finally got it. It takes time to figure out when you're going to play someone like Catwoman who's so iconic and so big in many ways to work out who she really is. And every time I put on the suit I would figure her out a little bit more and then a little bit more."

Despite the movie's various pitfalls, it deals with the current and controversial issue of a woman's desire, or pressure by outside forces, to chase the elusive fountain of youth.

"It's a sad, but true, reality. Men get more secure with themselves as they get older and women still want to be, and are expected to be, 25 years old."

Despite the rapidly increasing trend of anorexic-looking actresses who insist they eat hamburgers and fries ("I can't help it. I have a fast metabolism") and have never seen the inside of a gym (they were simply born with bulging triceps), Berry, at 38, admits to working out and dieting, but doesn't appear to have had any age-reversal work done.

"No surgery so far," she declares, laughing. "I think I'm taking the ageing process pretty well. So far I haven't felt that is what I need to do to make myself feel good about myself," she says. "I'm not judging or putting people down for doing it. Maybe I will one day, but I'm not there yet."

There's no doubt that Berry looks younger than her years. "My anti-ageing secret? Black don't crack!" she laughs. "Black women don't have to deal with ageing until much later in life. My grandmother is 80 and still flawless. So, hopefully - knock on wood - if I take after her, I won't be thinking about Botox before I'm 80. And by then, who cares?"

WHO: Halle Berry, Oscar-winning actress

BORN: August 14, 1966, Cleveland, Ohio, US

KEY ROLES: Jungle Fever (1991), Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (TV, 1999)

X-Men (2000), Monster's Ball (2001), Swordfish (2001), Die Another Day (2002), X-Men 2 (2003)

NEXT: Catwoman, opens September 16

TRIVIA: In the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), her character name was Sharon Stone. The real Sharon Stone plays her nemesis in Catwoman.