Halle Berry "Empowered" In Latest Flick

Halle Berry's career has covered a lot of ground. She's played a Bond girl, a mutant, and a cat woman. She's also won an Emmy and an Oscar and, just last week, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Now she's back in theaters with the new thriller "Perfect Stranger."

Berry plays a journalist who goes undercover at an advertising agency to investigate a friend's murder, trying to trap a character portrayed by Bruce Willis.

He is "probably one of the most charming, charismatic men I think I've ever had a chance to work with," Berry told co-anchor Julie Chen on The Early Show Friday. "Women love him, but the beauty of Bruce is, men love him, too!"

It's the second time the two have worked together. Sixteen years ago, they both appeared in "The Last Boy Scout."

"Bruce doesn't even remember," Berry chuckled. "I remember, because he was Bruce Willis, and he was a big star, and I was just starting. I don't even think he saw my face."

Which she says she didn't let him forget on the set of "Perfect Stranger."

"I've given him a jab in the gut about that one!" Berry told Chen.

On a bit of a more serious note, Berry added, "That's the absurdity of life, really, and the beauty of life, that you never know where you'll end up."

In the film, Berry playa a journalist who works for a tabloid paper.

Did it feel good to, in a way, get revenge by playing a tabloid reporter, rather than being pursued by them in real life?

"I didn't even think about that," Berry admitted. "Had I thought about that, maybe I wouldn't even have done it! … I just saw her as this complicated, twisted, very damaged character who offered me a chance to play so many facets of myself, which allowed me to play this really full, interesting character, and I'm always looking for some new way to challenge myself.

"She's strong, and very in touch with her sexuality, and has the intelligence to know how to use it, and that's an empowered woman."

Perhaps art was imitating life, in that Berry has a byline in the latest issue of Esquire magazine.

"Thank God for Esquire magazine for giving me a chance, and for allowing me to write this piece and sort of get my power back!" she exclaimed.

Berry also graces Esquire's cover.

How did she come to write the piece?

Berry said that when she arrived for the interview with Esquire, she "was feeling really upset about some interviews I had had just before, and I thought, 'You know what? I am so sick of people telling the same story about me, of 10 years old, wanting to drudge up the past, asking the same old questions. Don't I get a chance to grow and change and talk about what's current in my life?' " she said. "And I think it sort of stunned (the Esquire writer) and he thought, 'Well, I'm not going bring out a recorder. I'm not going to ask you any of those things.' And sort of, through talking and having dinner, the idea was born, between the two of us, 'Wouldn't it be great if I did get to show people a different side of me? The side that I can maybe write, or be funny?' … God bless him. Hats off to Esquire for giving me a chance to do that."

When she was last on The Early Show, in May, Berry said another marriage was out of the question, though motherhood was very much in her plans.

Her boyfriend is male model Gabriel Aubry.

On Friday, Berry told Chen nothing has changed in those areas: "I've done it twice. There's no reason to try that (marriage) again. But, I am a relationship-oriented person, and I want a committed relationship. I want children. We will just redefine what marriage is for ourselves."