NEW YORK, July 9, 2000 — Although Halle Berry has spent her time in court for a hit-and-run charge recently, she’s been unjustly tried and convicted for another crime. Halle hoped Hollywood.com could help her clear the air.
There was a quote attributed to you that got X-Men fans stirred up. It was reported that you said “I’ve been reduced to doing a remake of a comic book called the X-Men because of a lack of work for black actresses.”
Halle Berry: That’s totally not true. That’s not what I said. I was on a show promoting my Dorothy Dandridge project. X-Men was not even in the makings yet for me. Someone was trying to compare that role, of a real-life woman who had such significance to an entire community of people, to my role in this comic book.
And I just said that you can’t compare the two. I wouldn’t allow them to make a comparison. So somehow from that it got derived that I was putting X-Men down. I just wasn’t allowing them to compare a made-up comic book character to a real person who made such a difference in so many lives.
That’s perfectly understandable. Now we can set the record straight.
Berry: Please!
So what was the appeal of playing Storm?
Berry: Well still, even though [Dandridge and Storm are] different, she’s someone strong. She’s a black woman, and she is very grounded, very centered. She’s all about education in this movie. She believes that there’s a very peaceful way to fight intolerance because most of intolerance comes out of fear and ignorance. So she’s very important for this movie. Being the only African-American character, it’s very important that she’s that kind of character.
Storm educates (and kicks butt) when X-Men opens in theaters nationwide July 14.
