Halle Berry on daughter, Whitney Houston and possible move to France

LOS ANGELES – Halle Berry was passionate in her explanation of how the late Whitney Houston inspired her.

“I remember when I first really became aware of her,” said Halle, gorgeous in a sweater, pants and boots in a meeting room at the Beverly Hilton. “I was probably 16 or 17 years old in the mid-1980s. At that time, she was not only a huge talent. Arguably, there is no voice like Whitney’s. She was a very special artist and creature—a woman of color so talented to achieve that level of greatness, able to cross the barrier. But she was also able to affect the world in such a global way. That was very inspiring to me as a young girl. It gave me a reason to dream and hope. She was someone I identified with in a very fundamental way.”

Halle remained a fan of the singer-actress even in her troubled later years. “We all maybe didn’t understand what was going on with her… I desperately rooted for her to come back,” said the actress, who stars with Tom Hanks in “Cloud Atlas,” an epic sci-fi drama directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer.

Added the Oscar and Golden Globe best actress winner: “I was very sad when Whitney died the way she did … I really want her legacy to have a proper place in our history.” Halle joined Usher, Britney Spears, LL Cool J and others in “We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute to Whitney Houston,” which will be aired as a TV special in November.

“We got so caught up in the last decade of her life that it overshadowed her greatness in a way,” Halle said. “Hopefully, that tribute will remind all of us about her

contributions …”

As for her own career, Halle said that it is “an ever-evolving thing. I’ve had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects with some amazing people. I’ve worked on projects that didn’t quite turn out the way anybody would have hoped. But that’s the journey of a career… It’s about riding the wave, staying committed to what you believe in and always looking to grow and take risks…”

Halle said she has changed—as a mother to Nahla, her daughter with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, a model. “As a woman, it’s such a rite of passage to carry a baby, give birth and then become a mother. It’s something that I’m learning about every day.”

Halle broke into a hearty laugh after saying that what she needs right now is a baby sister for Nahla: “Because she asks me every day for one. I don’t have the heart to tell her, ‘It just might not show up.’ We’re going to wait eternally for that, I have a feeling.”

Divorced from singer-songwriter Eric Benet and former baseball player David Justice, and once romantically linked to Michael Ealy, Shemar Moore and several actors, Halle declared: “I’ve had some great loves… You have heard about the tragic ones. But the ones that aren’t so tragic don’t seem to stir up as much interest. I’m constantly in pursuit of that. My daughter, the love of my life, arrived four years ago. So I’ve got great love in my life and that feels really good.”

Engaged

In March this year, French actor Olivier Martinez announced that he and Halle were engaged.

“I’m working on it,” she said of her French language proficiency. “But the truth is, and I was told this very lovingly by Olivier, I will work on it when I get to France. Because what I also learned is that, at my age, trying to learn French in America is probably one of the hardest things I could possibly do.”

Does she and Olivier plan to move to France soon? “It’s not quite decided at this moment, but it will be, shortly,” Halle said.

A judge is reportedly set to make a ruling this week on Halle and Gabriel’s custody battle over Nahla.

Multiple roles

In “Cloud Atlas,” where each actor plays multiple roles, Halle has six identities. Based on David Mitchell’s best-selling novel, the film spans 500 years and unfolds in multiple timelines. It has three directors—Lana and Andy Wachowksi (“Matrix” trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (“Run Lola Run”). Lana —  formerly Larry Wachowski and is the first director in Hollywood to come out as a transgender — has been making public making appearances to promote the movie.

“We affectionately called them mom (Lana), dad (Andy) and Tom,” said Halle with a smile. “By the time we got involved, mom, dad and Tom had spent so much time with David. They masterfully took his book and came up with a new blueprint called our script, which was in some ways similar to his book. But in many ways, it was a departure from the book in order to create a cinematic experience. By the time that happened, when I met David, it was our very first read-through of the script in Germany…”

Though David visited the set sometimes, Halle said, he never crossed the line from writer to director. “He was like a kid in a candy store. He was watching the artists bring his words to life. I heard him say, ‘I never imagined you playing it like that, but that was great.’ That was the greatest compliment that any of us could feel from the writer.”

As for the Wachowski siblings, Halle said: “They really do direct jointly. Lana, believe it or not, did not take over. They have a really wonderful, respectful relationship. They never got angry. They never raised their voices. There was no disagreeing in front of us. Whenever they did that, and I’m sure they had to with a script of this magnitude, it was some other time, some other place, far from where the actors were.”

She added: “What I loved about them is that they have one voice. Lana would sometimes start a sentence and Andy would chime in and finish it. They were always on the same page. If Lana believed in an idea more than Andy, Andy would quietly let her express it. But then Andy would add his own. He would contribute to it at the end to further or finish the thought and vice versa. Andy would sometimes have a note and Lana would say at the end, ‘Yeah, that’s right. I agree with that.’ She would carry it further.”

So who yelled “Action!” or “Cut!”? “Sometimes it was the DP,” Halle replied with a laugh. “It was neither one of them. Or whoever was closest to us because the way we shot this, sometimes they’d be far away in the video-village somewhere.”

Legacy

On what she thinks would be her legacy, Halle, the first black woman to ever win an Oscar for best actress, said: “I just hope that when I’m gone from this life and this body, my daughter will feel proud of her mother. That’s really important to me. I felt very proud of my mother for the sacrifices she’s made for me and the kind of woman I have witnessed her to be. I hope my daughter feels the same way.”

As for her work, Halle said: “I hope, within my industry, I’ve made some small contributions that will carry on… At least for women of color, I’ve definitely made inroads. I’m part of that. If I do nothing else, I’ve done that.”

Summing up, she added: “I want to be a good human being. I want people to hopefully feel that I took the time to care about others and not just said it, that I actually put it into action. I made choices based on love and kindness and not cruelty, which is also what our movie is about.”

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TAGS: Entertainment, Halle Berry, Whitney Houston