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April 12, 2007

Strangers no More

The Shorthorn gets up close and personal with the stars of the new movie Perfect Stranger

Story by: Rueben Gonzales

Scene Critic

Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC

Halle Berry stars in Columbia Pictures’/Revolution Studios’ Perfect Stranger, out in theaters Friday.

DALLAS — Pulling into The Crescent hotel in Dallas, I thought about my new heroine, America Ferrera, and the mantra that her character Betty says to herself in times of crisis:

“I am a successful, intelligent businesswoman.”

However, I turned it into something a little more appropriate, and began to chant in a beautify lobby, making me feel a little out of place and underdressed.

“I am an intelligent, composed journalist.”

I was ushered in to the Egyptian suite with other journalists and some radio personalities. Some were friendly, some were fake. Some were new, such as myself, and others thought that working for 12 years at a small newspaper made them the authority on what made a good movie and what didn’t.

Twenty minutes later, I sat down in another suite, and before I knew it, Halle Berry entered, commanding the room effortlessly with her beauty and grace. Thirty minutes later, Giovanni Ribisi would enter and impress me with his intelligence, sincere eyes and deep love of his craft.

In town to promote their new movie Perfect Stranger, out Friday, the two talked about their feelings on the set, inspirations and future plans.

Halle Berry discusses her barrier-breaking roles

The Shorthorn: Being someone so sought after by the media, was it interesting to play the role of a reporter?

Halle Berry: I just always want to challenge myself and do something different. One of the first acting secrets you learn is that every character should have a secret. For me anyway, every time I play a character, I always have secrets about her that I keep from the director, from the other actors. Sometimes the director and I will have a secret about the Miles character, and many times when we’re shooting, the director will whisper something to Giovanni Ribisi and inform him something, and so we do a take, and then it’s different because he now has a secret I don’t know about. So we use secrets a lot when we work, and this time it was just about a character I thought was different. I never played a character this layered. Essentially, I played a character who played a character who played another character. That seemed like a challenge, seemed fun to do. To get into the skin of this person who’s able to do that.

TS: In this role, it was really about your journalism and the ethics of it. Would you ever want to be something else in your life, besides an actress?

HB: I used to want to be a journalist. That’s what I thought I would go to college for, and that’s what I would study and that’s what I would do.

TS: So what made you decide not to?

HB: I realized that I wasn’t good at it.

TS: Much of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and other minorities identify with the message the X-Men movies send of civil and human rights and equality. How does it make you feel to know that you affect many groups of people who are different from yourself in a positive way?

HB: Well, really good because I’m a part of that group.

TS: What drove you to start shooting the Texas-based Tulia? What was it about that script that made you choose it?

HB: I don’t think we will be shooting it here, we’ll be shooting it in New Orleans. You guys don’t have the right tax breaks just yet. I play this woman, Benita Guta, who comes down from New York and sort of sheds some light on this case and helps these people find justice. It just happened in 1999, and it’s another interesting character — the woman is Indian. It’s a very interesting story.

TS: At The People’s Choice Awards, you said you were all about X-Men 4.

HB: I’m all about it, but nobody else is.

TS: I don’t know if you did a lot of research, but Storm in the ’80s rocks a complete leather cat suit and a Mohawk. Would you do that?

HB: I tried to get that this time, but Brett Ratner wasn’t having it. He’s like, “Not when I get a hold of the franchise. Halle Berry is not getting a Mohawk.”

TS: So is there no production on it yet?

HB: I don’t think there will be. There is no No. 4. I tried to get it started on that show. I tried to get fans to write in and bug the hell out of Tom Rothman, and they did, but I don’t think it worked.

Ribisi is a stranger no longer

TS: Was it really stressful on the set? I imagine working with Bruce Willis being comical, and then Halle Berry, well, who can focus?

Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC

Giovanni Ribisi stares in consternation in the new suspense film Perfect Stranger.

Giovanni Ribisi: Between laughing and being completely enamored. This is one of Bruce Willis’ best performances that I’ve seen as far his dramatic work. I think he was there to do that. He definitely likes to have fun, but ultimately I think the emotional disposition of a movie set is definitely dependent on the director’s disposition. James Foley really comes from that school, Glengarry Glen Ross and At Close Range, of just looking at film in an elevated way, and whether it is or not is not the issue for me. It’s really the person’s viewpoint on it. Like I said before, I think that anybody who is in any creative endeavor should consider himself to be Picasso and appreciate that and really try to master what they’re doing. Or at least believe in that possibility. Berry is definitely a beautiful woman, but at the same time, the rehearsal period really helped us all focus and make a priority about the film.

TS: How long did you take to prepare for this?

GR: I don’t know. It goes in fluctuations across the span of the film. I had about a month before we started shooting. What really hooked me was the rehearsal period that we had. It was getting to know people. If you’re going on a business endeavor with somebody and you’re supposed to deal with the most important issues immediately, you want to be familiar with that individual so you can be on the same page. The same thing goes for film.

TS: Is there somebody that you haven’t worked with yet that you would like to?

GR: Yeah. There’s a director by the name of Kar Wai Wong who I love. Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, I see them as being at the vanguard and really not just jumping the gun. Waiting until they have something to say that’s perhaps original and going to be provocative, much like Stanley Kubrick.

TS: Is there any particular type of movie genre that you are more interested in than others and that you would like to make, or does it vary?

GR: I think it’s being out of the category and being effective and being dynamic. I mean, is Jaws a horror film? No, I don’t think so. Maybe it’s a horror film, maybe it’s an action-adventure, maybe it’s a drama. I think it’s all of that. I think there is something new, and it’s better to think broader, like Alfred Hitchcock. There are definitely certain tools and ways to approach a thriller or a horror film or drama.

TS: Do you find Hitchcock movies parallel Perfect Stranger?

GR: Yeah, and I think he’s definitely the master. I think all the great directors looked up to him, but I think we’ve done enough looking up to him. What’s next? We take it for granted when we go see a movie like Psycho. That scared me to death. But it’s done over and over again.