APRIL 12, 2007—Doesn’t Halle Berry know better than to talk to strangers?

In the Basic Instinct throwback Perfect Stranger, Berry stars as a reporter who goes undercover to unmask the killer of a childhood gal pal. Her prime suspect: advertising executive Bruce Willis, who just so happened to have ended his affair with Berry’s friend days before she died. But this being an erotic thriller with many red herrings, nothing is what it seems.

During a recent trip to Miami, the Monster's Ball Academy Award-winning actress discussed her post-Oscar career and shared her thoughts on:

Her attraction to Perfect Stranger
It gave me a chance to challenge myself in a new way. This is essentially three characters within one character, which I had never done. The twist that it takes at the end was a real challenge for me. I’ve never played this [deceitful and mysterious] character before, and it was a challenge to see if I could manipulate the audience into being with me on the journey. I had never tried to do that before. What I had to do was act within the character, and that was a challenge. Normally, as an actress, I’m playing one character, but I act the character and then act within that character and then act within that character. It was just a different exercise for me to go through. And I also wanted to do it because of James Foley. He is a director that I've admired for many, many years. One of his early movies, At Close Range with Sean Penn, was one of my all-time favorites. So when he came onboard to direct, I was really, really excited for a chance to work with him.

Perfect Stranger’s different—and more ambiguous—ending (spoiler alert!)
The only reason we shot a different ending was because people were starting to wimp out. They started to say, “Maybe we shouldn’t make Halle the killer.” There was another ending where Giovanni [Ribisi]’s character said, “What would you do to keep me quiet?” And it was left for the audience to think, what is she going to do? Is she now going to live this life of hell that she just rid herself of? Or should she just kill him? We just thought, let’s not wimp out.

Living up to—or failing to meet—post-Oscar expectations
I don't know, and I try not to really concern myself with it, because I see that as career suicide. Expectations were pretty low of me before I won an Oscar. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I like to approach my career with no expectations of anybody, except for myself.

Her nude scenes in Monster’s Ball
I’m used to criticism, so I accept all of it…. However, that kind of criticism doesn’t stick to me because I’m not one who thinks from that narrow mindset. I know I didn’t get an Academy Award for taking my clothes off. People want to try to stick that to me. It doesn’t stick to me. It’s unfortunate that an accomplishment as big as that … would be degraded in that way, that we wouldn’t see the good in it, but we would try to find something negative in it. At the end of the day, it’s a positive moment, and today we have Jennifer Hudson [winning an Oscar for Dreamgirls]. That started a steamrolling effect, forcing the industry to take a look at us. We all arrived that night. For women on film, we arrived that night, and from that moment on, I felt we were going to be looked at differently. The cat was out of the bag. That was the significance of that moment. So to belittle it feels like a disgrace to us all. It’s not about nudity. I’m totally comfortable with my nudity, and I find it hard that in this country we’re OK with shooting and killing, but we’re not OK with a naked body. It’s a contradiction.

African-American actors now having a fighting chance at the Academy Awards, just five years after Berry and Denzel Washington won Oscars despite decades of history being against them
It’s indelibly easier than it was 15 or 20 years ago. When I started in the business, it was nil to none. It’s definitely changing, but good Oscar-worthy roles are hard for any actor, be they black or white. It’s just not as easy as one might think to find you nominated and to be at that party on that night. So I think it’s hard for all of us. And I think more and more great parts are being written for people of color, and that’s not just reflected in the awards but look at the movies coming out. I think the industry is shifting, and they are giving people of color more choices. And if the work is there, I think the Academy and the voters will acknowledge it. But what makes it easier to acknowledge is that we are now afforded the opportunity to do the good work. And that’s happening a lot more. And they’re voting will reflect that.

The benefits that come with winning an Oscar
[T]he freedom to take chances, to try things that interest me, that offer me a chance to try something different or to grow as an artist, that offer me a chance to have fun and that offer me a chance to make money. This is how I make a living. I don't do it for a hobby. This is how I make a living, and I get paid really well, then I can do movies for $2, like the movie I just did, Things We Lost in the Fire, with Benicio Del Toro. I can do movies like that because it's a great character and it too is a great challenge. In the end, I think with sort of approach, it all sorts of balances out.

The roles available to women
I think good roles in general are hard to find, male or female, but I think especially for women. I would say women in general. I would say women of color, but it's true for all women. I’ve discovered that instead of sitting around waiting for them to arrive at my door, I have to go behind the scenes and shepherd some of them along and produce things and get in behind the scenes.

Her greatest achievement as an actress
That I've been able to work for 20 years and make my way. When I started, there was no way for a woman like me. The roles were nil to none. And the fact that I'm still here 20 years later and still working, I think I'm most proud of that.

Her blueprint for future success
I think I am hungry to keep working on my own terms, to keep making choices that are right for me, even if other people don’t get it. I think I’m hungry to stay relevant in this business as I get older. As time goes on, that becomes a challenge. There are new people coming into the business all the time, you think about how you can sustain a career. I’ve been in the business for 20 years.

Being a role model
I think that I am, simply because people tell me that all the time. And so I'm mindful of it, and when I think about being a role model, I always think the best model I can present is a woman who is walking her own walk and going her own way and living by her own standards. And I think that's the best image as a woman I can present to another woman. And I try to do that.

Keeping grounded
I am really lucky. Most of the friends I have in my life have known me since adolescence. I’ve got people who ground me and keep me real, who keep me in touch with the real me. They’re like, “I know who you really are. Don’t even go there.” I love having those people around me. It makes it easier for me to stay grounded as I walk through life, as I meet new people.

Her plans to reunite with Billy Bob Thornton in Tulia, a civil-rights drama based on a real-life case of false drug prosecutions
It happened in 1999 a small town called Tulia, TX, where 80 percent of the black population there got wrongly sent to prison on drug-trafficking charges. And I play an Indian woman named Vanita Gupta who comes from New York who comes down there and exposes this whole case and is very instrumental in getting all these people freed.

Finally making a romantic comedy
That's another struggle. People don't see me [as a romantic lead]. I'm producing one. l have to do it myself. Nappily Ever After is a movie about women and what we all go through dealing with our hair, and how we’re defined by it. Men will appreciate it. Every man knows a woman who suffers. We define ourselves by our hair. If our hair’s not right, then we’re no right in the world. And in this movie, my character loses her hair. Her hair gets messed up, and she has to shave her head bald. And it's about learning to love yourself for who you really are, not for your exterior self that we spend so much time worrying about. It’s a really important movie for women.

Pulling a Kojak for Nappily Ever After
I cannot wait to shave my head bald. I cannot wait because I have serious hair issues, and I'm going to use this movie as therapy, to really get in touch with what this is. It’s a real problem for women, and I think this is going to be a real good thing to experience this through film and help other women go on this journey.

The success of the X-Men franchise and whether she would return as climate-controlling heroine Storm
Yes, I would do it again, however they wanted me to be, as long as I could be the Storm who I was in The Last Stand, who was more active and had a point of view and a personality. The success [of the franchise] is because it's so relatable. Everybody understands what it's like to be an outsider or to not fit in, not be fairly judged or discriminated against in some way. I think it could direct itself at this point, because it's that strong of a franchise, and the characters are that important and people love them.