BERRY, DIFFERENT ACTRESS STEPS UP TO SOME INTENSE, MOVIE-STRENGTH DRAMA IN 'MONSTER'S BALL'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

For years, Halle Berry has been known for her looks.

These days, however, the Revlon spokesmodel and onetime Miss Teen All-American is getting more recognition for her talent.

After building respect over the past several years for her work in such films as ``Bulworth'' and TV projects like ``Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,'' Berry is receiving the best notices of her acting career for her latest movie release, ``Monster's Ball,'' including American Film Institute and Golden Globe best-actress award nominations.

The irony in all of this is that, in ``Ball'' and her previous film, last summer's goofy action thriller ``Swordfish,'' Berry exposed more of her beauty than filmgoers had ever gotten glimpses of before. But even though her decision to do on-screen nudity was a recent development - and not one reached without trauma - Berry asserts that the scene in ``Monster's Ball'' could not be more different than the one in ``Swordfish,'' nor more integral to one of the most serious films of the season.

``I'm praying that the American public will be sophisticated enough not to reduce the scene in this movie to the level of 'Swordfish,' '' Berry says. ``You never know, but I'm countin' on us! One was clearly done for shock value and gratuitous, and one is a pivotal, vital part of the movie.''

In ``Monster's Ball,'' Berry plays Leticia, the wife of a Death Row inmate (Sean Combs). She lives in a kind of limbo - loyal to her husband, working dead-end, easily lost jobs - in a small, Georgia prison town with her overweight son (newcomer Coronji Calhoun) until the switch is thrown by the semi-racist, widowed head of the penitentiary's execution team, Hank (Billy Bob Thornton).

After a wild series of personal disasters befall both Leticia and Hank, the two come together, relieve their sorrows in what is easily the most passionate and emotionally true sexual encounter seen in at least a decade's worth of American cinema, and then have to sort out their true feelings for each other.

Creating 'Monster'

Rich with character opportunities and cultural observations, the $2 million indie production, shot in a quick 21 days during the sweltering Louisiana summer, almost didn't happen for Berry. Swiss-born director Marc Forster just couldn't initially see the former Miss Ohio USA and honor society scholar as a poor, undereducated Southerner who couldn't even control her rages over her son's clandestine candy binges.

Berry writes off her long struggle to land the part to the double whammy challenge she believes she's had to overcome her entire acting career: being an African-American woman in a white male-dominated industry and, at the same time, being too beautiful to be taken seriously.

``I can think of worse struggles to have, so I'm not complaining,'' she says of the looks issue. ``But it has been a struggle, and that's why I fight so hard for roles like this. Even though I do the 'X-Men' and the 'Swordfishes,' which have a valid place in my career, these kinds of movies make me do better because I know that they're not what's expected of me.''

As for the other thing, ``They don't even think of me in roles like this - a black woman in her 30s, which fits my description!'' she notes with a chuckle. ``I'm just used to the fight; that's been what my career's been about. That's been ingrained in me since I was little, and probably has to do with being raised by my white mother. She always said to me, 'You're going to have to work harder, you're going to have to be better, you can't take no for an answer, and you're going to have to fight.' ''

Perfect for the role

Berry's persistence finally overcame Forster's reservations.

``It wasn't necessarily resistance,'' the director explains. ``I just met a lot of people. Every black actress in America, basically, wanted to do this role because there are so few good parts for women in general, and for black women, even less.

``Basically, I just wasn't sure about Halle because she's really and truly a glamorous movie star. Would she be willing to do the lovemaking scene, go to where I wanted to go with it? But when she proved she was so passionate about the part and willing to do whatever was required, I said OK. But I gave her and Billy Bob final cut approval of the love scenes.''

Which was not, the actors like to point out, exercised. Nor was the love scene, intense as it was, the hardest moment for Berry. That would have been Leticia's despair-fueled abuse of her son, Tyrell, after catching him sneaking chocolate on the night of his father's execution.

``That was tough, let me tell you,'' Berry explains. ``Coronji is only 9 or 10 and really is dealing with an overweight issue. It really required heart-to-heart talks with him, and kissing him and hugging him every minute before and right after we shot the scene. I was telling him, 'This is a movie. Everything I do or say is not real. I really think you're wonderful.' And he said, 'Well, whatever you're going to do, Halle Berry, it won't be worse than what the kids at school do to me.' ''

Troubles of her own

Heartbreaking, if hardly the kind of problem Berry can personally relate to. But she cautions quite adamantly against assuming that beauty is some kind of shield against life's troubles.

She's had her share, like a father who abandoned the family when she was 4, and was unpleasant enough during sporadic returns that his inevitable departures were met with relief.

Berry points out that she struggles with diabetes and an old injury has cost her a good portion of her hearing. Then there was the auto accident that she was involved in two years ago, which injured her and another driver and eventually resulted in Berry pleading no contest to hit-and-run charges. And her first marriage, to baseball star David Justice, failed to work rather spectacularly.

Or, at least, quite publicly.

``I think that when you're a public figure, when you do what we do, the things about your life are magnified to an unrealistic degree,'' Berry reckons. ``It seems like something extraordinary is happening to me when it's really not. It's just the normalcy of life. Life is about good times and bad times, struggles and sometimes scary things, unthinkable things. People get sick, people die, accidents happen, but it's not an extraordinary thing. It's just lived in a public way so people pay more attention to it.''

These days, things are going well on most fronts. Berry and longtime friend Eric Benet celebrate their first wedding anniversary this month. They met at one of his concerts through a mutual friend and took months getting to know each other, mostly via e-mail, before the two of them expressed their mutual attraction.

``It wasn't about lust; it wasn't because he looked the way he looks,'' Berry insists. ``We were just friends, and we each like each other. That's never happened to me before, and that's why I know it's the real deal.''

Benet's 9-year-old daughter India, whose mother was killed shortly after her birth, is a big part of that deal and, according to Berry, all bonus. ``It's totally changed my life,'' she says of instant motherhood. ``I have a whole new reason now for getting up in the morning, and so much joy. My free time is full now. When I'm not working, I have a real life now that feels meaningful. And now, after having her, I've kind of realized how lonely and uneventful my life really was. I didn't really do much.''

That and work should be keeping her pretty busy in the foreseeable future. Berry hopes she can juggle the shooting schedules of two terrific projects - the 20th James Bond film, for which she's been asked to play the villainess Jinx, and the ``X-Men'' sequel, in which she'll reprise her role of superheroine Storm - between now and next summer.

The rumor mill

And no, she's not going to take any clothes off in the Bond film, despite panting rumors to the contrary.

``That is absolutely not me; I have a clause that is, actually, quite to the contrary!'' she says with a hearty laugh. ``I will not be nude anytime soon. Who knows how these rumors get started? Just like the one about how I got paid extra to be nude in 'Swordfish'; God knows where these things come from.''

And while there's still the possibility that her exposed flesh will be the most talked-about aspect of ``Monster's Ball,'' Berry is confident in the knowledge that it's the movie's many, less-sensationalized stretches that truly make her performance special.

``I love the calm, quiet moments,'' she says. ``They give the movie, like, a breather; it's not always being hit over the head with drama.

``My character is a little more showy than the others; I get to play a lot more, if you know what I mean. But the perfect-world plan was to try not to overdo anything, which was always something that could easily happen. I was always conscious, and Marc was, too, to remember the subtlety of these things as well. We tried to find the balance against the melodrama that was built into the project.''

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(1 -- cover -- color) Beyond the skin game

`Monster's Ball'brings Halle Berry new recognition for her dramatic skills

(2) Halle Berry plays the widow of Death Row inmate executed by Billy Bob Thornton in ``Monster's Ball.''