8
2004 NINELIVES“Critics
bashedit,” explainedHalle
about herbox-officebomb
Catwoman. “Butpeoplecomeup to me
now andsay,‘I don’tcarewhatanybody
sa ys,I likedCatwoman.’ Nobodyever
sa ys,‘I reallylovedMonster’sBall.’
Nobody.No. Body.Nobody!”
7
2002 BADDAYThetitleof
the 007 picDi e AnotherDay
becamea tadtooliteral
whenduringher lovescenewith
Pi erceBrosnan“a pieceof the fig
lo dgedin my throatandI’mgetting
noair. Piercesaidhe knewI was
ch oking.[Sohe] jumpedbehindme
an d did the Heimlichmaneuver.”9
201 4 BORNTO ITWhileshe’snot
“a n astronautor scientist— far,far
fr omit,” Halledid connectwithher
ch aracteron TV’sExtantbecauseof “her
struggleto notonlyfindtimeforherself
[but] alsoto be a goodmother.That’sthe
strugglethat I havestruggledwithsince
mykidswereborn.”10
2019 DOGGONEITAfterbeing
“r eallylit up”by the firsttwopics,
Hallecouldn’twaitto be inJohn
Wick:Chapter 3 ...ortakehomelessonsfrom
he r dogtrainingon the pic.“I havethese
ki llerLabradoodlesnow.I mean,I don’tknow
if they’regoingto go forthe b---s,but they
could reallyattacksomebody.”3
1993
QUEEN BE
“I was not
acting a character.
I was reenacting
a part of history,”
insisted Halle of
playing the titular
freed slave in the
miniseries Queen.
“For me being
interracial myself,
it hit me harder...
because I realized
that, had I been
born 100 years ago,
this could be my
story. Queen’s life
could have been my
life. And that was
horrifying.”6
2002 HAVING
A BALL “This
moment is so
much bigger than me,”
Halle said when she
became the first black
woman to win the Oscar
for best actress. Yet
the night is a little
blurry for the
Monster’s Ball
star.“I don’t
rememberany
ofit, noneof it.
Very shortly
afterI gotthat
statue,I became
in ebriatedto
thepointwhere
thewholenight
is a wash.”4
1999 AWE-INSPIRING “I
was in awe of her beauty,
her talent, her charisma,”
shared Halle of her Emmy-winning
turn in the biopic Introducing
Dorothy Dandridge. “She
walked through
the back doors
so that I can go
through the
front doors.”5
2000 UNSUNG HERO She’d play the
X-Men’s superheroic Storm in four
movies, but to Halle, “my hero has
always been my mother. She was a single
mom raising two little kids. She happened to
be white and raising two little black kids in
the ’60s and so she was often an outcast. But
she did it with such strength and grace.”