CON: Gothika

Comments:
 
Strike Back below!
by: The Arrow Jul. 30, 2003

GOTHIKA PANEL:

Participants:
Halle Berry

This film stars:
Halle Berry
Penélope Cruz
Robert Downey Jr.
Charles Dutton

Release date:
October 24, 2003

WHAT DID SHE HAVE TO SAY?

I’ve always liked Halle Berry, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been a huge fan, but when she walked in to do this interview...I was awestruck at just how beautiful she was!! I’m talking a natural beauty, equal to none. Wow! The lady was dressed casually and sported an arm brace (her arm was “accidentally” broken by Robert Downey Jr. on the GOTHIKA set). Halle was very calm overall and yes, charmed the living pants out of every one in that room. Here’s the key info I got out of this session.

  • When asked if she would be in X-MEN 3, she said that she hadn’t made up her mind on doing a third movie just yet. She hadn’t seen a script and no offers have been made yet. She also said that she'd been getting lots of fan feedback about her STORM character and how they would love to see her do more and stuff that she does in the comics (like fly) in the film. Halle went on to say that she keeps passing that along to the people behind the X-Men movie franchise and hopefully when X3 happens, STORM will be a more fleshed-out character for whoever plays her-- be it Berry or somebody else.

  • She got the role in GOTHIKA when she saw Joel Silver at the premiere of a Star Trek film. She was there to support Patrick Stewart and before the lights went out, she went over to Silver to say hello. He said “You must be so busy after having won the Oscar”, she answered, “Not really I don’t have a job confirmed yet for after X-Mas”. Joel answered with “I have a movie for you”. When he told her that it was a horror movie, she wasn’t too excited (she’s not a fan), but when she got the script, she was sold by page 10. She loved that it was a strong character study and that it had a great character for a woman.

  • Although the film GOTHIKA is set in modern day, it has elements of the past to it as well as a Gothic feel via its sets and locations. They mix old and new here, according to Berry.

  • The title GOTHIKA was a play on the word and on what Gothic really means.

  • Halle’s mom was a psyche nurse at a VA hospital for 35 years, so Halle grew up with that in her life. When she read the GOTHIKA script, she related to it immediately since that was such a big part of her life. Her mom was very helpful in telling her what a person in her character’s situation would feel, what they would do, what they wouldn’t do. Halle’s mom truly helped her get into the mindset of someone that is a doctor one day, and a patient, the next.

  • There is a supernatural element to GOTHIKA that makes it classic horror in some ways, but there’s also a psychological element. It's not a slasher movie, there’s lots of twists and a plot that asks to be figured out.

  • Halle is very spiritual and was sure that she had spirits lurking around on the creepy GOTHIKA sets that helped her get into the role. She was actually staying at a creepy old house during the first two weeks of shooting and the house got broken into. Things were moved around and she heard someone walking around on the third floor. The odd thing is that there was no signs of breaking and entering, no locks picked and no windows broken. She moved into a hotel soon thereafter. Haunted house? Maybe.

  • There’s a great shower scene in GOTHIKA with 60 naked women in it. Perverts, calm down! It’s not about that. It's not about them being naked, it was shot very tastefully. But there’s something really intense going while they’re showering.

  • For half the shoot, Halle had a broken arm. She found it hard to have to act while always having to think of keeping her arm out of frame. She’s used to acting with no boundaries, so working around the arm was challenging for her.

  • Halle was a gymnast as a kid and loves the physical part of movie making. There’s one great action sequence in GOTHIKA where her character escapes the asylum and goes on a journey. It's one hell of a journey apparently. She also hopes to heal her arm fast enough to be able to do her stunts in the upcoming CATWOMAN movie.

  • She begins shooting CATWOMAN in the fall and is looking forward to bringing something new and different to the role. She wants to bring some of her own personality to the part, but in the end, "CATWOMAN is Catwoman", she said. The costume will be something you haven’t seen before and the story will be her story where we’ll witness how she became CATWOMAN. She’s not just a side-character in a BATMAN movie this time around, it’s her journey and we’ll learn interesting things about the character that some people might not know.

  • As a kid, Halle wasn’t an avid comic book reader, but she read the Batman comics and that’s why it’s such a kick for her to be CATWOMAN in the upcoming flick. The character meant a lot to her when she was young and for a woman like her (a woman of color), to play a character that is so universal, feels pretty good. It kind of gives her a "full circle" feel where she now gets to be CATWOMAN, a character she grew up with, but for the new century.

  • She got the JINX script the night before the Con and even though it's not supposed to be a female Bond flick, it would apparently be edgy and sport some of the humor found in Bond-- although not as tongue in cheek, as per Ms. Berry.

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Source: JoBlo.com