Halle Berry: Not just a pretty face

Earning raves for 'Monster's Ball'

Berry: "It's scary to be that vulnerable on film."

By Andy Culpepper
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Don't tell Halle Berry that beauty always opens doors easily. The female lead opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the dark drama "Monster's Ball" almost lost the part because of her good looks.

"But that's been my career struggle, so I'm very used to it," she says matter-of-factly.

When her manager gave her the script to read, Berry assumed she was being offered the part. "I thought, 'Wow, this is the best thing I've ever been offered. Oh, my God, say yes. Sign me up.' "

But it wasn't hers -- yet. "He said, 'Halle, there's a little problem: They don't want you.' "

The actress with the cover girl appeal didn't get discouraged. She fought for the part, and she won.

'It's scary to be that vulnerable'

Berry plays Leticia Musgrove, a death row inmate's widow who falls in love with the prison guard on the detail in charge of executing her condemned husband. It's a gritty role.

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"It's scary to be that vulnerable on film," Berry, 33, says. "This movie was all about shedding inhibitions for most of the cast, really, you know, saying things and presenting images that were risky because you never know how people are going to take them."

The reaction has been glowing for Berry. The National Board of Review named her best actress for her performance. A Golden Globe nomination followed. Most recently, she picked up a best actress nod from the Screen Actors Guild -- most significant, perhaps, since actors did the voting, and actors nominate other actors for Oscars.

Berry doesn't want to tempt fate.

"I'm not going to go there," she says on the subject of the Academy Awards. "But you know what is good about all that ... if any of this buzz helps bring more people to see the movie, because it's an independent movie and anything will help ... that people will be able to see it and get the message that we felt so passionately about."

Ups and downs

Berry's been lined up for the next James Bond film, meaning her run should continue -- despite playing a character named "Jinx."

Not that recent life has been all good fortune for Berry. The Cleveland, Ohio, native has become an unwilling tabloid staple -- first for her high-profile marriage to baseball player David Justice, later for getting in a minor car accident. Perhaps most overblown was the publicity over a short topless scene in last summer's "Swordfish."

Berry remains philosophical about it all.

"It passes," she reflects. "Life is about peaks and valleys and ups and downs. And every valley you're in, you're in there for a reason. There's a lesson."

And what would she tell someone facing a valley of their own?

"Hang on," she says. "Because that new day is coming, and then you're armed with everything you got, everything you learned from being in that valley -- the strength, because you survived it, and that's worth more than anything."