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From Oscar to Bond
^ward-winner Berry brings strength to the role of007 y s leading lady
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KRT-H a 11 e Berry gave one of Oscardom’s
istssvh! Is est and nlost movin g speeches
t edisease I | en she became the tirf;f Ui '' nV
’ * best-actress accolade.
|And she still has something to say.
Her Oscar was for Monster’s Ball, a small but
■rowing film that was shot in four weeks in the
Beep South. She can now be seen in Die Another
|/v. a James Bond opus that’s anything but
lall. It required six months of location shooting
iaIceland, England and Spain. She plays Jinx, the
■od/bad girl who gives Pierce Brosnan’s Bond
|)ie than he bargained for.
What Berry wants us to know is that Jinx is
Bond Girl who doesn’t swoon.
“So many times, the women in Bond movies
Rrt off being strong and determined, with their
Rui agenda,” Berry said in a recent telephone
conversation. “But after maybe five minutes with
Macho James Bond, they swoon into his arms. It
|ok Pussy Galore {Goldfmger) a little longer
than five minutes, but she wound up swooning.”
■ Not this time, Mr. Bond.
I "Jinx isn’t like that,” Berry insisted. “All their
Ivjrbal exchanges are as equals, and so are their
lave scenes. This time there was a definite effort
to make James more vulnerable and the women
laracters less vulnerable.”
I Berry’s introduction to Bond Babes was as a
ybung girl watching Dr. No’s Ursula Andress
[nerge from the ocean like a mythical sea god
dess, with a knife strapped to her bikini.
I “I don’t even know how old I was when I saw
Dr. No," she says. “I just remember watching it
on television and thinking how glamorous and
beautiful everything and everyone was. I didn’t
grasp the storyline and I had only a very basic
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understanding of the sexual politics between
Sean Connery and Ursula Andress.”
I In Die Another Day, Berry’s Jinx makes a
similar entrance, striding through the ocean
waves with a big “Here I am, world!” grin and a
Inife tied to her bikini. “This is the 40th
-w “ B-wnwersary of the James Bond films,” she says.
n " Js ome °f tbe scenes, like Jinx emerging from
the ocean, are intended to have a commemora
tive air.”
Berry’s performance so impressed Metro-
Goldwyn-Mayer that the studio signed her to a
series of films that will feature Jinx as a CIA
agent. Who knows, even Bond could pop up in a
Jinx film. “I definitely have an idea that James
Bond and Jinx have not seen the last of each
other,” Berry said.
Her schedule has few blank pages, with five
projects in production and pre-production. And
some of the roles she has been offered since the
Oscar were not written specifically for a black
actress.
“That means a lot. Maybe in some ways, that
means some doors have opened up. But I know
there is plenty of racism in the world, and some
doors will never be open. ... I’ve always thought
the ideal situation would be to make both small,
forceful movies and also make big-budget,
straight entertainment movies. And that’s what
I’m able to do now.”
X-Men 2, due for release in early summer
2003, falls into the big-budget, straight enter
tainment category. But October Squall, which
will start filming in 2003, fits the small, forceful
prototype.
"'October Squall was one of the films written
specifically for a woman of color,” she says. “I will
play a rape victim who decides to keep the baby. I
feel like it could be another Monster’s Ball."
Her Oscar acceptance speech, in which shd
named black actresses who suffered career set
backs because of their race, was warmly
received at the time. But an inevitable backlash
followed.
Berry smiled at a “Saturday Night Live” par
ody, in which her character cited, among others,
“the lady who stands by the Slurpee machine in
the 7-Eleven commercials.” But she regrets not
having mentioned co-star Billy Bob Thornton.
“Some of the media commented on that, and it
was very remiss of me,” she said. “I was on such an
enormous high at that moment. I wanted all the
women who had been overlooked to share this won-
Photo Courtesy of KRT
Actress Halle Berry plays “Jinx” in the latest installment of the James Bond film franchise, Die Another Day,
costarring Pierce Brosnan. Berry won the best-actress Oscar for her work in last year’s Monster’s Ball.
derful moment with me, and I wanted to name them
all. They had the same problems that all women do
in male-dominated professions, but those problems
were multiplied a hundred times by the fact that they
were women of color. But I was very upset when I
realized that I hadn’t mentioned Billy Bob.”
Another criticism came from Angela Bassett,
who told a national publication that she felt
Berry’s role in Monster’s Ball, with its explicit sex
scene with Thornton, was demeaning. Bassett’s
comment started a controversy among both black
and white actors.
“I felt sad for a day or so,” Berry says. “It did
bring me down a little bit from that wonderful
high. But I told myself that Angela, God bless her,
has the right to her feelings. And if she wants to
express them, well, then God bless Angela, that’s
her right, too.”
GIG th
Calling all Aggie fans in or near Houston over the Thanksgiving
holiday weekend! Your men’s college basketball team leads off
a basketball triple- header Saturday, November 30 at the
spectacular new Reliant Stadium. Support your Aggies
against the Tigers of LSU at 1:30 pm. Then stick
around for two more top college matchups:
@4:00pm vs
Seton Hall
Uf Houston
Tickets start at only $12 for admission to ail three games
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