THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170068
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
FOR HER FIRST serious big screen role, Halle Berry picked one that might make her unpopular.
``I know I'm going to be criticized for taking the part,'' Berry said of her role in ``Losing Isaiah,'' a potentially controversial movie that opened this week. ``This is not an entirely sympathetic role. In fact, she, much of the time, is not sympathetic at all, but that's the point.
``In this country, we need more dialogue across racial lines - person-to-person, without worrying about being so politically correct.''
After years of being perceived as either a beauty queen or a model, Berry is cast as Khaila Richards, a drug-addicted prostitute who abandons her baby. The baby is rescued from the trash and adopted by a white social worker, played by Jessica Lange. Three years later, Khaila is rehabilitated, career-oriented and ready to take her child back. Her claim is that the boy, Isaiah, should be raised by his biological mother with a sense of his own racial background.
For Halle Berry, it is the kind of role that could make her a bona fide star rather than a glamourous starlet.
She was the sexy secretary Sharon Stone in ``The Flintstones'' and Eddie Murphy's leading lady in ``Boomerang.'' In real life, she was Miss Teen Ohio, Miss Teen All-American and a successful Chicago model.
Current talk in Hollywood is that Berry has the best chance since Dorothy Dandridge to destroy Hollywood stereotypes and become a mainstream star.
Berry admitted that it was difficult to persuade producers that she could handle the heavy dramatics of ``Losing Isaiah.'' But she knows the issues first-hand.
``I'm half black and half white,'' she said in an interview in Los Angeles. ``When I walk out of this room, I'm black. I'm very aware of my white family, but I must face any discrimination that a black person might. I can't say, `I'm half white, so I shouldn't face that.' It doesn't work that way.
``My mother was white and my father was black. I was raised solely by my mother. My father left the family when I was in the third grade and I grew up in a largely white suburb of Cleveland, but I always knew of my black heritage. You don't always have to be reminded of your culture every day. My mother saw to it that I had a sense of background.''
``I don't draw the line,'' she said. ``I just react to people around me. You have to know the enemy. Racism is the enemy - not white people. I face it every day. Sometimes I think I can't beat it.''
Steve Gyllenhaal, the director of ``Losing Isaiah,'' admitted that he originally thought Berry ``was much too beautiful for the role. You look at her and there is a sense that she couldn't possibly survive in the ghetto. Halle had not done anything as demanding as this role before, so we didn't really consider her until she came in for a reading. She came in the room and talked a bit and then she asked if she could go out again and come back in, as the character. She did. As time went on, during a two-hour stay, she got better and better.
``More than just an actress, I think Halle Berry has the ability to become a legendary movie star. Most of the great beauties in film history were also good actresses. Whatever it is, I think she has it.''
Berry laughed. ``They keep saying I'm too pretty. I'll take it. It's better, I guess, than someone saying, `She's too ugly to work.'
``And, besides, who said a crack addict might not be beautiful? We think too much of these people in terms of stereotypes. The people stuck out on the streets are, often, very good people. The drug problem, on the other hand, knows no boundaries. Some of the people you might never suspect are addicts.''
Gyllenhaal had to come to Virginia to get his other leading lady - current Oscar nominee Jessica Lange, who lives near Charlottesville. ``I was to fly to Charlottesville and take the script to her,'' he remembered, ``but a snowstorm canceled all the flights. I got a taxi from Washington and finally got there. She read the script overnight and accepted the next day, but I was snowed in, so we had more time to talk.''
Berry was not intimidated by Lange, an Oscar winner for ``Tootsie,'' and a nominee this year for ``Blue Sky.''
``I learned a great deal by working with her,'' Berry said. ``She's very serious and very controlled. She's a very strong personality. I admire that in a woman.''
She also had to work with 3-year-old Marc John Jeffries, who has the title role. ``It was very easy to bribe him to get him to do things,'' she said with a laugh. ``There was a rush, though, because of him. After all, he was growing fast. We filmed three variations of the ending all at once because we'd have no chance to do it later. He was getting bigger right before our eyes.''
In real life, Berry has had her share of bad luck with men. She was sued by John Ronan, a formerly well-do-do Chicago dentist, for $80,000 in what he claimed were unpaid loans. She claimed they were gifts and successfully withstood the suit, but he now threatens to refile in California. The filming of ``The Last Boy Scout'' was slowed when a boyfriend apparently struck her. She suffered a black eye and 80 percent deafness in one ear.
Now she is married to Atlanta Braves baseball player David Justice.
``We have two mortgages to pay,'' she laughed, ``so I'm hoping to get him out of the house and back playing baseball soon.
``I always feel as if I'm outside the clique of the other baseball wives. The only good thing about the strike has been that they are as outside it as I am, at the moment. I just want the strike to be over.''
She played the Queen of Sheba in ``Solomon and Sheba'' recently for the Showtime channel. ``I think I'm the first black actress to appear as a Biblical character,'' she said. ``When growing up, I never saw a black face in a Biblical epic. We had to have been there, because we're here now. As a child, I always wondered about that.''
Next, she'll appear in an action film called ``Race The Sun,'' playing a teacher who gets involved in a race involving a solar energy car.
The part she covets, though, is that of Dorothy Dandridge in a proposed biography. Dandridge was the first black actress to receive an Oscar nomination in the best actress category (for ``Carmen Jones'' in 1954). Diana Ross and Janet Jackson also covet the role.
``The life of Dorothy Dandridge is in the public domain, so it just depends on who does it first,'' Berry said. ``I'd love to play her - and I've already learned that you can't hope too big. Who knows? It might happen.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Halle Berry
RICHARD FOREMAN
Viacom Co.
Khaila Richards (Halle Berry) tries to regain custody of her son,
Isaiah (Marc John Jefferies), whom she had given up for adoption in
``Losing Isaiah.''
by CNB