Halle Berry and Susanne Bier Interview

They called her Mommy. I mean, they kind of got into that whole thing with no hesitation and then they had those. I mean there was this occasion, very natural irritation, which you have with kids also where, where Halle would have that very natural, like being a mother. Could you please be quiet or whatever, you know. HB: (laugh) So we could get this scene, please just say the line.

SB: They would be really noisy the way kids are and, and, and Halle would kind of go, come on, come on like. And, and that's the way you are with kids. And, and they'll very quickly that whole natural energy and kind of communication developed.

So you would say you found it easy being a mother in the film or?

HB: No, no, no, no not easy, (laugh) I don't think motherhood is easy. I think motherhood is probably, you know one of the hardest things any woman can do. So, it wasn't easy but I also felt that it came natural. That I, I'm meant to be a mother. I loved every second that I got to be with the kids, even when they weren't being their best selves. I knew that I inherently love children and need to have that energy in my very own life, like on a day-to-day basis.

What aspects of motherhood?

HB: Probably knowing that I will be responsible for helping to shape and grow another human being. And that I have a clean slate and I have a chance to infuse into a child all the ideals and beliefs and you know, the moral values and the system that I believe in and that I can pass this along to someone else. And hopefully, produce a wonderful human being that adds something wonderful to the world. The thought that I might be able to do that, the thought that I will do that because I'm committed to doing that is really inspiring.

Such a limited time?

SB: Can I just say, can I just say something in terms of the movie for that question is that one of the things about kids is that there is a totally unconditional love and it doesn't matter how irritating and how annoying, which they are, at times.

HB: Well she taught me that.

SB: I have kids and, and I love them. They're lovely, wonderful but they also have, I mean anybody who's got a kid would agree with me because that's the way it is.

And that unconditional love is very, is specific for kids because you don't have in, in other kind of love relationships, the annoying part becomes dangerous.

With kids, it's not dangerous it's just there, like the weather. I mean you can't really decide... The love is there.

How did you choose this story, how did you decide?

SB: I found, I at that point where I received the script, I, I read a lot of scripts, which, which wasn't all that, then I read this and I felt that these characters were real. And it was like a very truthful, I mean it sound pretentious to say, but important story to tell. And it was, and it wasn't that was like heaven but it was also entertaining. It was also fun and very, I was just very touched by it. And I thought yeah. I would want to do that. I would.

Did you fall in love with the characters in this story?

HB: Yeah I love the characters. I love that parts of it were really scary for me. I was entering into uncharted water as an actress, and as a human being, never dealing with many of these issues and that excited me and challenged me to do something different.

And, um I read the movie and for some reason, when I read the screenplay, I felt a connection to it and I'm not really sure what that was.

Even to this day, I'm not really sure other than I connected to the, the, the characters, the movie and I connected to the idea that no matter what we go through in life, we've all have gone through our ups and downs. I have like that you have.

The, the idea that once you get through it, you're better off because you went through it. Even though while you're going through it, it's the hardest thing you can imagine.

When you get through it, you're somehow made better. And I think that was a great metaphor for life and I connected to that.

Do you see this as a woman’s film?

HB: I wouldn't necessarily say it's a woman's film. I think it's a, it's a very human story and although Audrey Brand is a woman, and you know she's dealing with her children, I still think the element of, of Benicio Del Toro's character is a really strong element of the movie. And it’s really about relationships. It’s about friendships and I think both men and women experience relationships and, and friendships.

And without the men in the movie from Benicio down to you know, John Carol Lynch, I don't think you'd have you know, nearly this, the, the impact of the movie would not nearly be what it is. So, no I wouldn't say it's a, it's a woman's movie in, in any way. I think there's a lot to be learned and gained for, for men as well.

The Benicio...

SB: I don't think it's a woman's movie. I don't think, I think, I think it’s a, I mean I've, I've shown it to a number of people and actually, interesting enough, um, men react even more, react even stronger to the movie than women does.

And I think it's, it's probably what it does, it gives, it gives an insight to men and women, which is not an action film.

I mean, there are no machine guns. And we can tell you that much (laugh)

I was referring more to a sense of perspective

SB: I don’t think so, which is why what you asked me pre, or somebody asked me about that I often deal with men's relationship. I do think that it has a very strong male point of view; it's also written by a man.

Benicio's character really I really related to that from previous relationships but the boyfriend or the husband has had some annoying friend from the past, do you ever experience that?

Yeah. Just some...

HB: Not so much.

...from, from their past that you just don't understand why they're in their life.

HB: No, not so much.

No? That was new for you.

HB: Yeah. I haven't had that experience. SB: But you know, I mean anybody you get close to might have habits. It doesn't have to be a friend. I mean it can be like a, irritating habit like eating onions.

I mean it can be things that you don't necessarily appreciate and, and you can relate and you, you know acting and movie making is not about a very distinct experience and then repeating it in a movie. It’s about ability to envision a certain state of mind.

And you can use, and you then use things, which are similar but you don’t necessarily have to have lived a loss, or have to have lived a something else.

If you are a good actress like Halle is, she will, she will understand it intuitively. She will work on it. She will read about it. She will know about it but she will also have a, a very thorough imagination of it.

Yeah, but can you imagine how it is to loose the, uh, love of your life?

SB: Yes.

If so...

SB: Yes.

HB: Yes, I can imagine. I had to imagine it in order to, to, to play it and Susanna had to imagine it in order to, you know direct the movie and, and help me know how to play it. So, it's all about imagining, for sure.

Do you plan on making more Dogma films?

SB: I'm not; it's not like totally alien from me to at one point make another Dogma film. I mean, I, I've only done one Dogma film, Open Hearts. And, and, and I would, I think the austerity of that film taught me a lot.

I wouldn't want to do it again. I like fine music, I like the movie making part of making a film but, but I do think there is a lot of truth to be learned by making a Dogma film.

Because you've got no, there's no icing on the cake. There's only the cake. You can’t decorate anything and that's very, I mean that's very educational.

You are in the mood with the music.

SB: Yeah.

Tell us about music in the movie and what do you think about the music?

HB: I don't have, I heard the real music when I saw the movie. I haven’t seen it; I don't think I know the real music so I'm gonna see it tonight. Just so I can know what's, what's what (laugh) I saw it an early, early, early...

SB: She'll get it, she'll do it she'll get the shock of her life. She thought she really liked the film but no (laugh)

No she has seen it, we're just joking, she has seen it but we just changed some of the music afterwards. Um, uh that is the, that I wish the music is sort of the unconscious, that's what unconsciously take you through all the emotions. It’s not the action it's not the visual. It's the, it, it leads you it takes you on your hand and leads you emotionally from one point to the other.

Things We Lost in The Fire is released 1st February.Things We Lost in the Fire is the latest movie from director Susanne Bier starring Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro.The film follows the life of Audrey who has recently lost her husband as she invites his troubled friend to live with her and her two young children.

What do you feel, are you happy with the project?

Halle Berry:I'm really happy, I'm really proud of it. Really proud of the movie and to have worked with the people that I got to work with in Susanna and Benicio and David and, you read something on paper and you don't know how it's gonna turn out. It's such a director's medium. And now I'm just really happy when I saw the movie that Susanna made it even better than I think I could've even imagined it to be. She's a wonderful storyteller.

Did you do much research into your character?

HB: Yeah.

..have an understanding of addiction

HB:Well, no I didn't and, and I think the beauty of this character, well she didn’t understand addiction. And that's why she never understood why her husband was so invested in this in her mind, this looser of a man who used to be this great lawyer who squandered his life away. She couldn't understand the connection because she was trying to understand it intellectually and she didn't really understand it emotionally, until she got to know the guy. And then she really understood the connection between she, I mean he and her husband. So, she didn’t understand addiction, so I did none of that. I left that to Benicio. My journey was to try to understand the psyche of a woman who had just lost the most important thing in her life, person of her life. She just lost it tragically and to understand the stages of grief and to understand what being a mother was in the face of this kind of

tragedy and to find the hope on this other side. That was my under the surface work.

How did you do that? Did you go to any grief counseling meetings?

HB: No,but you know what I realized? I had many people in my life who had lost their parents or their loved ones or their children but I never really, and this is gonna sound maybe a little crass, but I've never really bothered to investigate fully what they went through and what they felt.

My job was usually just as a friend to be supportive and cheer them up and to make them feel better, not to sort of, be a therapist and sort of pick their brain. So, what I now had a chance to do was to pick their brain about their loss. What did you feel like and what are the stages of grief? And then I had to take that information and interpret it in my own way and then funnel it through this character of Audrey.

And her way was very different than any of my friends described but their information gave me sort of a basis of what, you know dealing with loss and grief was all about.

Tell us about working with Benicio.

Ah, that was great. (laugh) He's very fun, that's true? Susanne Bier: He's extremely funny. HH: Yeah. SB: He infuses any set with a weird sense of absurdity, which makes him hilarious. He's incredibly funny at the most unexpected points. (laugh)

How, which points?

SB: Because I do, I think he perceive, I mean I can't I'm not within his head but I think he perceives the world in a very surreal manner. I think he has a kind of, a way of being in the world in a sort of, he's slightly different from the rest of us. And that, he has that tremendous sense of showing that sort of how surreal, how crazy, how odd is this moment? He does it all the time and...

Susanne, how did Halle convince you that she could play this part?

SB: Oh, that was very hard, no (laugh) I mean, I was interested, and I heard from the studio that she was fairly keen to have that part. I also heard there were a number of actresses being very keen for that part. I can say that...

HB:I heard that too.

SB: And, so I was kind of, I was kind of seriously, and I was kind of seriously, kind of thinking about who I thought it should be.

And I was in a strange way very curious about Halle and we arranged to meet. And Halle came in and it took me probably about 4 seconds to decide that this was gonna be good. And then we had a very good meeting.

HB: We did.

SB: Yeah. And we also did address sort of, or rather I told Halle I'm not gonna deal with you being a woman of color, however way you put that. It's not of interest and it’s not relevant to, in any sort of way address this in this movie. So, let's just talk about the part.

HB: But the other thing she did say, she goes in our like the first 10 minutes of that meeting, how do you feel about having absolutely no make up on and being on camera? (laugh) I said great love it. Well, because that's a requirement, no make up no, no make up at all. I said, okay.

SB: And also you know I thought when do you work out or we had, I was actually pretty, horrible now that I'm thinking about it. I said I don't want you working out.

HB: No more working out.

SB: I don't want you working out and I don't want like over worked out arms being, you, you know like you're a normal human being. Like, one thing is that you are out of this world beautiful on your own. That's one thing but, this sort of rest of it we can't have.

HB: Yeah and she told me straight up, this is what it's got to be. I said, okay. (laugh) Okay, okay.

The whole movie?

HB: No, there was a part in the beginning, SB: Very little. HB: In the beginning of life when she was with David, you know she wore a little bit of make up and at the end when she was starting, but the whole rest of the movie when she was in the grief and in all that, no. There was no.

How did you handle it, I mean I cried watching it, I mean it must've been...

HB: To wear no make up, you cried watching it (laugh) Oh God.

To deal with the loss?

HB: You know that was sort of like a delicate tight rope dance and I did everyday with Susanna trying to find the balance and trying to really find those little moments and hit them just right and really bring truth to the grieving process and not make it overly sentimental and really not be afraid to deal with the anger of it and the resentment of it all and, the bitterness of it. To not be afraid to really express that even when it came to dealing with my children. Because when you, when you really suffering through loss, you aren’t always the ideal parent but it doesn't mean you don't love your children and you don't want what's best for them but people are human beings and you aren't always your best self, especially when you’re dealing with something as tragic as this.

So, it was finding the confidence to really go to those dark places and knowing that it would be okay. Because it's about bringing the truth to this.

SB: And also, and also I want to say Halle is, is totally, unconditionally honest. I really would say that and, and, and, and, and that makes it possible to do those scenes because you don't feel like I think one of the, one of the misunderstandings about that you have to defend a certain you have to defend a certain part. You don't defend a human being, you become a human being and therefore you behave accordingly.

And if you do that truthfully and, and sensitively, which Halle does it all the time, then, then the defense is, is within, within the part.

Like with Audrey, you feel she's harsh, you feel she's harsh with her kids but most of all you feel she's very harsh with herself. And therefore, you forgive her for, for all the, the harshness to the world because it's so obvious that she's just desperately trying to protect them, trying to survive.

What did they teach you?

HB: That I needed to be a mother (laugh) I was meant to be a mother and also, the beauty of working with kids too is, especially these kids.

Susanna chose that weren't like movie kids. You know they were pretty much kids. I think I, Alexis had done a few things but the little boy, not so much.

The beauty of children, they're so honest and I would watch them work sometime and it would be so effortless the way they would do something or say something.

Or a, a movement that they would have and, and they got to really be the kids that they are in the movie. They weren't written as like, little adults, they were written, as they would be, as children would be.

They got to behave, as children would be. And I learned a lot watching their, they, they, they organically just say things and it's so real and so natural.

And I would sort of sit back sometimes and like, do a little less and then they go. No, how simple was that? Look how they did that. (laugh) That's not like brain surgery.

They don't have technique, they don't have all these things rolling around in their head that you know, someone else like myself or Benicio might have in our heads. They just say, say it. They just do it. Do what they're told to do.

And it was interesting to watch them just have the freedom to do that.

How did you break the ice with them when you first met them?

HB: Oh, I don't remember.

SB: She was just herself. She was just being...

Because sometimes children, like people have to relate to another because they don't have sensibilities that we have.