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BERRY, DEL TORO GAIN FROM 'THINGS WE LOST': Oscar duo star in new film.
The film is described as a poignant and powerful story of a recent widow who was so invested in her husband that she invites her husband's very troubled best friend to live with her and her two children as a way to stay connected to him.
In the course of the situation, the two find that they help each other cope with the loss and turn their lives around.
The film has already been heralded as an Oscar contender for the film itself and the cast, with early reviewers commending the acting, directing and the writing. The film was written by scribe Allan Loeb who considers the script a work long in the process – having written a few works he’s not so proud of. And when asked about where the story came from, he explained that it was just something that had been on his mind for quite some time.
“I don’t have an answer to where it came from, but it was just kind of haunting me,” he said. “And I didn’t think it would be a big studio movie, so it was kind of surprising that it did go to DreamWorks.”
After DreamWorks opted to do the film, the studio landed Danish director Susanne Bier to helm. Then the script fell into the hands of
Benecio Del Toro.
“I read the script and I felt something. It took me in,” the star said. “I met with Susanne and I saw that the themes of the movie were going to be treated seriously – the addiction and the heroin and all that stuff. Then I saw her movies and I [thought], 'This is someone I’d like to work with.’ And then Halle Berry jumped in and got everything rolling.”
Though Berry was apparently attached to the film after Del Toro reviewed the script, the Hollywood beauty admitted to having her hands on the story long before it got the green light.
“I had somehow gotten a hold of the script. My manager gave it to me while I was working on another movie,” she said. “I read [it] and thought, ‘Wow. I’ve got to be in this movie. I don’t care who else is in it, I’ve got to do it.’ So we put in the proper calls, but all I got was, ‘We don’t know.’”
Fortunately for fans of the actress, Berry had the opportunity to meet with Bier while in New York.
“When I walked in my first question was, ‘Do you care that I’m black, and this wasn’t written for a black woman? I think that might be my problem here.’ And she said, ‘To hell with what color you are, it’s not relevant. Just tell me why you like this character.’ I got the part.”
Berry continued that the film’s draw wasn’t just about the character she plays -- Audrey Burke, but the host of characters and the reality of the film.
“What I loved about it was that I connected to all the characters. There was something that touched me. I haven’t lived this woman’s story in any way shape or form, but I have lived what many of us have lived and that’s having to go through the valleys of life and coming through on the other side and realizing that somehow we are indelibly better. I thought that was a message that most people can relate to and incorporate into their very own lives and see themselves through all of these characters.”
In addition, Del Toro spoke about the fluid freedom in working with Bier to create the characters.
“There was a freedom in front of the camera. I think you’ve seen that in all [Bier’s] films. There was a freedom of exploring. It wasn’t every time, but when it happened it’s clear. You feel like you’re peeping into somebody’s life or peeping into the story.”
Bier explained that her direction is an organic process – from the moment she gets the script to the day of the film’s completion.
“I think that at anytime, it’s about capturing the possibilities and I think that’s some of the excitement of it and the fun of it, but also the scary part,” she explained. “This is not about free improvisations. It’s about maintaining the core of the story and the energy of the characters, and then treat it as real life. I think it’s really exciting. That’s why you have the sense of looking at a real family. It is real life.”
Berry added that making it all seem real was the challenge for her with this film.
“Making the family feel like a family, that was my greatest challenge,” she identified. “To make the relationship with David Duchovny and I feel like we were a married couple of ten years – that the couple was very much in love, but also to find the mundane quality that comes with being married for ten years. It was important to find a way to have little hints of that mundane-ness or that things weren’t perfect.”
Director Bier said she felt comfortable that Berry could portray the conflicted widow.
“That was my main reason for wanting to cast her,” she said. “Here is an actress that can play on being sympathetic, but I think what Halle does is maintain the tension of being harsh on the surface, but there’s not one point that we doubt her reasoning. With Halle playing the part I felt confident that that was what would be conveyed.”
But Berry said that not focusing on being sympathetic was how she pulled it off.
“One of the big parts to playing [the character] was to not worry about being sympathetic,” she said. “I think as an actor that can be suicide – if you worry too much about how you’re coming off. It’s most important to be honest and truthful in being the character. What I discovered in my research is that the stages of grief are really severe and to portray her honestly, we had to see some of those stages and it’s not always pretty.”
Nevertheless, Halle is larger than life on screen with Del Toro, but will be getting a bit bigger in the coming months. The 41-year-old actress announced that she is expecting on her recent appearance on the “Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“I was there to promote this movie, [which] I’m really, really proud of,” she said, “but I knew that with the timing of my pregnancy – as this always seems to happen to me – my personal life seems to always eclipse my career. It seems to be my lot. But with this baby, I know that my life has already changed. I know that my work will change and probably the choices that I make will change because I’m one who chooses roles based on what I’m most needing and wanting to express in my real life. I think it will hopefully make me better. I’ll be more grounded and I’ll have more life to draw from.”
For more: www.thingswelostinthefiremovie.com
(See related story: Halle Berry says 'Paparazzi Caused my Car Accident')
On October 19 the BHERC Awards 2007
HONOR: Lou Gossett, Jr.; Julie Dash,
Vida Spears, Sara Finney, and LaWanda
Hawkins and introduces the FILMMAKERS
at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood. Contact:
www.BHERC.org or call 310-284-3170.
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