Halle Berry doesn't age.
She just gets better and better.
On an early Sunday morning in Los Angeles, Berry arrives at the Beverly Hilton in black silky shorts, a matching flowing shirt and a wide smile. Her perfectly mussed hair goes every which way in the most perfect way.
Don't hate her because she's perennially beautiful. She's happy to share her secret beauty tips, skin beauty tips and other easy beauty tips.
"I think beauty is something you have to find in yourself," she says. "I feel the most beautiful when I'm just spending a day with my daughter and she says, 'Mommy, you look pretty.'"
HALLE BERRY SHARES HER SECRET BEAUTY TIPS
Berry is a Revlon spokeswoman and a natural beauty. She's happy to share a few ways she's aging extra gracefully.
Beyond being a fan of Revlon's products, she also likes a great natural beauty tip.
To reduce cellulite, she actually scrubs with used coffee grounds. The caffeine is a great way to break up anything that might be settling in.
She's also partial to Revlon's Just Bitten lip stain. "It makes your lips feel so soft and smooth," she says.
She's also a fan of the Red Carpet Facial, a peel that gets rid of dead skin cells.
Berry keeps her trademark short hair for a reason. "It's me," she says. "It's also easier to be a mother and have a hairdo that's manageable. I can't spend half an hour blow drying."
Ask for her best beauty tip and she says, "A big smile because you're happy. It's also free. Everyone should try it."
HER AMAZING FILM "CLOUD ATLAS"
Berry stars in the new film "Cloud Atlas" that discusses among other topics how every action impacts man and womankind as a whole. It's also about finding your soul mate over different lifetimes.
Berry, who is engaged to actor Olivier Martinez ("Unfaithful"), isn't going to get into soul mate discussions. "Not going there," she says with a warm laugh.
"Let's just say that I'm happy and really boring these days," she jokes.
During the filming of the movie, she broke her foot running after her daughter.
"My broken foot was tough," she admits. "Every decision from that moment on had to do with my foot.
"Everybody supported me in every way possible," she adds.
Berry was even worried that she'd be cut from the movie. "I thought I'd get m papers and be told to get back on a plane!" she says.
The directors said they would work around her issue.
"I was never so touched," she says. "I cried so hard."
"This was a life lesson," she insists. "All of us have bumps in the road. The important thing to ask yourself is: How am I going to fix this?"
She plays multiple characters in the film, which was a challenge.
"It's hard to say which one was my favorite," she says. "I didn't really have a favorite because that would imply I loved one more than the other. I did love playing an Asian man and a gutsy woman figuring it all out. I play a woman who is oppressed and stuck. I love her evolution to get out of that place."
She says taking on major challenges like this film is something she embraces at this age.
"I'm honored when people trust me with a challenge. When the directors, the Wachowski's, called me, I thought, 'OK, I will meet with them and prove that I can do this movie.' When I got there, one of the directors named Lana said 'It's gotta be you in this film.'
"I knew they were putting so much faith in me and I wanted to live up to their expectations."
HALLE BERRY ON LIFE AND DEATH
The film questions the meaning of life and death.
Berry is quite upfront about those two biggies.
"I've always had this philosophy of life and reincarnation," she says. "When I was very young, I questioned it all and began to study Buddhism.
"I've always thought of what I was before and what I will be when I leave her," she marvels.
"I've always had difficulty thinking that I'm turning to ashes and dust, never to be again," she says.
"I do believe we come here again and again until we achieve our highest evolution," she says. "It's circular in my mind. We go on and on."
HALLE'S PERSONAL LIFE
Some of the aspects of her life aren't so pleasant.
She is currently going through custody hell in order to move with her daughter Nala to France where Berry's fiancé, actor Olivier Martinez calls home.
She says dealing with the paparazzi during this time is pretty daunting.
"They sit outside my house!" Berry fumes. "I want my daughter to get away from it. She hasn't made a choice to be in this business.
"This needs to stop, so she can be a little girl and grow up," Berry says of four year old Nala.
"It's my job as a mother to provide a great childhood for my daughter. It's not fair what happens to the children of famous parents. I'm grown up. I can handle the paparazzi. She's only four.
"She doesn't understand why these people are outside our house. She has no mechanism to deal with it," says Berry.
"I don't want her to be 18 and a hot damn mess," she fumes. "By the way, you only see the photographs. You don't hear the terrible things they say to you to get you to react before the photos are taken."
