Halle Berry Gets Comical at Convention

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday July 23, 2003 01:00 PM EDT

Halle Berry must be a good sport. After all, how many Oscar winners and Bond Girls appear at comic-book conventions?

But the "Monster's Ball" and "Die Another Day" star, 36, did just that last weekend in California, putting in her time at San Diego's International Comic Convention, or "Comic-Con," where she discussed playing Storm in the "X-Men" movie series, according to MTV News and Sci Fi Wire.

Berry gave MTV some dirt on her upcoming role in the supernatural horror movie "Gothika," due for release in October and costarring Penelope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr. and Charles S. Dutton.

In it, Berry plays a doctor accused of murdering her husband and who wakes up in the mental institution where she works -- having no memory of the incident.

"The world of psychology is one that I know pretty well," Berry said, explaining, "My mother was a psych nurse for 35 years. I've been around it my whole life. And so I felt particularly comfortable with this genre and this script."

Once confined to the institution, Berry's character reportedly is haunted by an angry spirit. "This is a great character like I've never, ever played before," she said. "It's a strong character. It's a woman in jeopardy, a woman on the brink. And I love to play those characters."

Meanwhile, Berry told Sci Fi that she's moving forward with plans for a movie spinoff based on her character in the 007 movie, Jinx.

"We just got the script last night, the first script," Berry said. "And I hear it's really, really good."