Halle is
perfect, but what about her new movie?
Halle Berry talks about her new psycho
thriller
Halle
Berry is no stranger to the psychological
thriller, having once played a
shrink-turned-amnesiac mental patient in Gothika
(2003). With Perfect Stranger, the Oscar, Emmy
and Golden Globe-winner revisits the genre as an
investigative journalist who adopts a fake
identity in order to solve her best friend’s
murder. Here she talks about this latest
picture, a multi-layered mystery which co-stars
Bruce Willis as the prime suspect and Giovanni
Ribisi as the colleague/sidekick who has a
secret crush on her.
How would you describe Perfect Stranger?
There are dangers everywhere. In the
beginning of the movie, a murder occurs. And
somebody did it. Somebody among us. Somebody
that you see on screen in this movie committed a
murder. So, there’s danger everywhere you look,
and you don’t know who did it, and so you don’t
know if they’ll strike again. You don’t know
when they’ll strike again. You don’t know who’s
going to solve it, or even if it’s going to be
solved. So, there’s an element of mystery and
danger from beginning to end, I think till the
very last scene of the movie, also pretty
shocking. There are some moments we filmed that
are pretty shocking. I read them on the pages
one way, but we filmed them in a way that was
surprisingly shocking to even those of us
involved. You never know what’s going to happen
when you turn the camera on, sometimes.
What was it like acting opposite Bruce
Willis?
He was really, really wonderful in this movie.
He’s perfectly cast [as advertising tycoon
Harrison Hill]. He had a real handle on who this
guy was and what motivated him. He’s wonderful
in the movie.
How about your other co-star, Giovanni
Ribisi?
Giovanni’s very cerebral, and he’s very
talented. He’s the kind of actor that wants to
dig deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and
understand layer after layer. I really respect
that about him. He’s always thinking about the
character and trying to make the connections
more real, not only for himself. And in doing
that he makes it real for those around him, too.
Every character seems to be hiding a big
secret here, so would you say that the movie is
delivering some sort of message about secrecy?
It’s staggering what someone will do, or can
do. I think this movie sort of highlights that.
And the characters are sort of intertwined, and
they intersect in a way which makes them all
very much alike, but at the same time very
different. But they all have secrets. They’re
all hiding something. They’re all pretending to
be not exactly who they are all the time, and
that makes them all connected in a weird way,
and makes them kind of the same in a weird way.
