20Q: Halle Berry

Hollywood’s freshest face speaks out on insulting rap lyrics and recreational swearing, and warns Robin Givens not to pick a fight

Halle Berry, the 25-year-old Cleveland-born actress and former beauty pageant contestant knows how to leave a lasting impression. She brought an earthbound sweetness to Strictly Business and The Last Boy Scout and straight-backed dignity to the six-hour miniseries Queen. For Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, she gave a rancid-mouthed crackhead some dimension. In Boomerang, Berry turned her third-lead, nice-girl art director into an impressive scene-stealer.

Now Berry is taking off in another direction, showing up as Rosetta Stone, a slithering, prehistoric temptress in Universal’s The Flintstones, co-starring John Goodman and Elizabeth Taylor. Midway through the shoot, we sent writer Margy Rochlin to speak with Berry at her West Hollywood hotel room: g“The first thing Halle did,” says Rochlin, “was offer me a weak handshake and admit that the idea of a long interview made her nervous. Then she threw herself down on her white couch and blabbed for the next two hours. She kept pleading, g‘If you get bored, just tell me.’ She never gave me a reason to.”

Q1: In order to prepare for your role as a crack addict in Jungle Fever, you didn’t bathe for 10 days. What is the upside of skipping your morning shower?

BERRY: It was a freeing experience. We are so civilized. We have to be clean and smell nice and look pretty. It was refreshing just to let myself go and not care.