Halle Berry is no ‘Stranger’ in Cleveland

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 24, 2007

Whoever said that celebrities move away and forget their roots has never met Halle Berry. A native of Cleveland, and one of the Lake Erie shore’s best exports, Berry has always looked back with a fond eye toward Cleveland’s culture, its people and its midwestern charm. So it is only fitting that on Thursday, when Ms. Berry returned to Cleveland for an exclusive premiere of her new flick Perfect Stranger, she was met with the warm roar of the crowd and some good ole C-town weather: rain.

Of course, the rain didn’t stop tons of fans (and two stellar online film critics known as Brian Gibson and Neil Miller of Film School Rejects) from waiting for hours to see Halle’s gracious entrance into the Cinemark Valley View theater, the site of the afore mentioned career. She was joined by co-star Giovanni Ribisi (Gone in 60 Seconds) as they attended to the media on the red carpet, did a quick Q&A with fans and press inside the theater and stuck around long enough to introduce the film.

Directed by James Foley (Confidence), Perfect Stranger tells the story of an intrepid reporter (Berry) who is mysteriously contacted by an old friend who claims to be having a troublesome affair with a major New York ad executive (played by Bruce Willis). When her old friend shows up dead a week later, she goes undercover to find out what happened to her friend and gets tangled in a web of deception, perversion and ultimately more deadly consequences.

Giovanni Ribisi plays Miles, her quirky assistant who has a bit more of a dark side than he initially lets on. I caught up with Giovanni on the red carpet and asked him what drew him to this particular role. “At first I was skeptical because the guy was sort of this introverted IT tech guy and it was sort of a clich©. Then I had a meeting with the director and we had a discussion about him being witty and charismatic and outgoing and really trying to win Halle’s character over. And that’s what seemed exciting to me because, you know, later on you find that he’s a lot darker than that, and there’s that turn.”

But while the red carpet was filled with questions about the film, the fan Q&A session quickly turned to Halle Berry and her beloved hometown. “Cleveland is full of good stock,” she explained. “This is where dreams have started for so many fine, fine, talented people.” Of course Halle is one to talk about the talent that has emerged from Cleveland, she being the first African American actress to ever win the Best Actress Oscar. Not bad for a former Bedford H.S. Bearcats cheerleader.

Now, if you want to hear about how good the film was you are just going to have to stay right here at FSR and wait for the reviews that Brian and I will be putting together closer to the film’s release date on April 13^th. If you’d like some more photos of Halle Berry, Giovanni Ribisi and a few other special guests from Thursday’s event, we’ve got you covered below (just click on each image to enlarge).


Halle gives us an alluring look.	Halle Berry looking absolutely radiant. She must have known we were going to be there.

Halle stops to give an autograph to a young fan, which is sweet, but it cut into our interview time!	Halle listens intently to questions, still looking radiant.

Giovanni Ribisi attends to the mob of Cleveland media, such as the Kent State student newspaper.	Giovanni feigns interest in my questions, looking on intently.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards stops to pose with Brian Gibson.	The night wasn’t all about Halle, Giovanni Ribisi fans were out in force as well.