Perfect strangers meet for a college chat

By Jen Colletta
Collegian Editor
April 4, 2007

On Tuesday, March 20, Philadelphia welcomed Halle Berry and co-star Giovanni Ribisi for their promotional tour of their new psychological thriller, Perfect Stranger. The Collegian, along with several other Philadelphia college newspaper representatives, got the chance to speak with both actors about everything from their childhoods to their future plans.

Ribisi, who first received big screen recognition for his 1998 role in Saving Private Ryan, was the first of the two stars to address the group of students. With a mouth like a sailor and a penchant for lapsing into a British accent, Ribisi immediately came across as quirky, yet very down-to-earth.

Since he was young, Ribisi has dreamed of becoming an actor. Growing up in Los Angeles, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood were hard to resist.

“I grew up during the blockbuster era, and part of me feels like it would’ve been hard to avoid those inclinations as a young boy growing up in Los Angeles,” Ribisi said. “My best friend three houses away got an agent, and then it was just sort of like, ‘What am I, chopped liver over here?’ So my mother finally acquiesced after years, and it was a completely different life.”

Ribisi was born into a family of Scientologists, who allowed him the freedom to choose his own career path.

“They were both extremely on the creative bend, and hippies, of course. They wanted to give their kids liberty to explore what they wanted to do in their lives,” he said.

Ribisi is still a Scientologist today, which is a field that he feels many people don’t embrace because they don’t understand its origins.

“I’ve been a Scientologist all my life. People ask me about it, and I tell them that they should just read a book,” Ribisi said. “It’s a pragmatic philosophy. It’s literally you read something in theory, you practice it and then you go out and apply it to your life. Going to a church is very much like going to a college or a university, where you have courses and a supervisor, and you study. Scientology’s main focus is human behavior, and this is what acting’s all about. It’s helped me a lot.”

Although Ribisi has appeared in dozens of films, he feels that the best is yet to come for him.

“Sometimes people ask what my favorite project is, and I think it’s still around the corner,” Ribisi said. “I still think there’s a lot more in the future for me that I really want.”

He is very satisfied, however, with his work on Perfect Stranger. In the movie, Ribisi plays the Internet-savvy Miles, who is infatuated with co-worker Rowena, played by Berry. After the brutal murder of Rowena’s childhood friend, the pair goes undercover to track down her killer, whom they believe to be Harrison Hill, played by Bruce Willis.

“Halle was just great. She’s just all of what you can imagine. She’s really, really committed as an actor, and it’s always refreshing to work with someone like that,” he said.

Ribisi also had high praise for the film’s director, James Foley.

“He’s really just out of his mind, but in a good way. He’s so creative and so eccentric. He’d just scream at the top of his lungs for five seconds straight after you did something he liked; it was a little alarming at first,” Ribisi said. “I’m such a fan of his. He’s really underrated as a director. He was a breath of fresh air, and if I felt like I was losing my foot ing, I always knew I could rely on him.”

Although Perfect Stranger is dubbed as a “psychological thriller,” Ribisi notes that the film has a myriad of levels and layers, which all intertwine to form a mysterious and intriguing work.

“The film has an intellectual element as it navigates through all these different characters that each actor is playing with all these masks. It also has an emotional side to it that I think is there from Halle specifically. I think it really grasps people. You should probably see it,” he said.

If Ribisi’s sarcastic and laidback demeanor could have a polar opposite, it would come in the form of Berry. She radiated sophistication and elegance as she talked about everything from her Oscar win to pesky tabloid rumors.

Berry broke into the acting world through what began as a practical joke.

“When I was 17, my boyfriend at the time entered me in a beauty pageant without telling me, just because he thought it’d be funny to see me do it. So I ended up doing it and actually won,” she said. “I got a lot out of it. I was extremely insecure about myself and somewhat shy and introverted when I entered beauty pageants. So for me it was a great experience. It helped me in my acting career. I won some, I lost some; I learned how to be a gracious winner and how to be a gracious loser. Those are things that are really important in my life today.”

As editor of her high school newspaper, Berry originally planned on pursuing journalism as a career, but got “sidetracked” by the allure of Hollywood.

“I’m glad it happened the way that it did because I really would have just sucked at journalism,” she said.

Although she is one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood, Berry still encounters prejudice and racism.

“I would love to be seen as just an actress and that’s it, but we’re not quite there yet,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been struggling to find my own power my whole life, being a black girl being raised by a white mother. But I think it’s my responsibility to talk about race, though, and raise awareness about it and deal with the issue.”

Berry was the first African-American Best Actress Oscar winner for her work on Monster’s Ball, something which, five years later, she is still in awe of.

“I knew in that moment that it was bigger than me. It was so not about me, and I think that’s why so many other people connected to it as well,” Berry said. “I’m glad that I didn’t write a speech. I know that it was way too long, and if I could do it again, I’d make it shorter. It was very spontaneous for me, and I spoke from my heart, and I think that that felt right for me. I think I thanked the same person three times. It was a big deal for me, though, and maybe it’s not the same feeling for other people. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. It was huge.”

Although she said her Oscar win ranks as one of the best moments in her life, she doesn’t seek out roles and movies that may garner her another nomination or win.

“I’m never thinking Oscar. Who knows what’s going to bring an Oscar nomination? I look for something I’ve never done before. If I read a script and it feels vaguely familiar, if it feels like skin I’ve worn before, then I instantly feel like there’s nothing new to learn and no growth for me,” she said.

Berry was particularly attracted to her role in Perfect Stranger because of the various dimensions of her character, as well as the entire movie.

“I wanted to play this character because it’s something I’ve never done before. Usually, when I want to do a movie, it’s for better or worse, something new. This posed a new challenge for me,” she said.

Perfect Stranger centers on the concept of concealing one’s true identity from others, and Berry feels that her time in the spotlight helped to prepare herself for her role in the film.

“It’s really hard to be a public figure. The paparazzi are everywhere,” she said. “It’s hard to find a way to be private and be yourself. There are many days that I want to go out just looking a wreck, but I know that they’re out there.”

Several years ago, a tabloid photographer snapped a shot of Berry walking on the street in open-toed shoes and manipulated the photo to make it appear as though she had six toes.

“My manager called me up and asked if I had six toes, and I was like ‘What?’ The picture looks so real, but it’s not. I just want everyone to know that,” she said.

Although the life of a celebrity may have just as many pressures as it does benefits, Berry is committed to staying afloat within the business and working on projects that will continue to allow for personal development.

“There are still a lot of things that I want to do, but I want to make sure that each opportunity allows me to really express myself in the way that I want,” she said. “I’m going to try to do something different and take a new risk and try to grow.”

collettaj1@lasalle.edu