Halle Berry: What's Inside Counts

Halle Berry says her life tends to imitate the art represented in her latest venture, the computer-generated animated film "Robots."

The gorgeous actress tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith the movie's message is that, "No matter what you look like on the outside, it's really about what's going on inside. Some of the robots are really beautiful, well put-together, like my character. She's made up of all brand-new parts. And (another character) is put together with spare parts, used parts, old parts. So the big message is that we really are what we are on the inside, and not really on the outside."

Berry says she's aware of similar dynamics in how fans look at her: "I think they think they know how I should be and how I should feel, based on the way I look on the outside, and nothing could be more dead wrong. What's on the outside is so very different than what's on the inside for me. So they think they know (me), but they really don't know."

How is she on the inside now? "I'm very calm, very patient. I've learned a lot as I've gotten older."

Smith noted Berry hasn't been mentioned in the tabloids as frequently as she used to be, to which she let out with a loud, "Whoo hoo!"

"Life is changing," she continued. "With age comes a certain, you know, security. You get comfortable in your body and you no longer sort of seek that validation that you used to or that approval from people that really don't matter. And I've gotten really comfortable with saying, 'No, I'm not going to talk about that,' or. 'This who is I am and I love to talk about it, because I have no secrets. I'm really not interested in trying to keep secrets today.'"

The Oscar-winner got reflective: "I think now, after having some awards, the validation has come. So now, it's about doing projects that I believe in, that offer a challenge, where I can have fun. Sometimes, I just want to have fun and challenge myself in a new way. Sometimes it's to do something really dramatic that has social significance. Sometimes it's to work with a great cast of other people and be in an ensemble piece. So I think now, the sky's the limit. I just want to continue to grow and work. You know? Do what I love to do. And I think so many actors don't get to work. You know? Most actors are unemployed, so the fact that I get to work feels like a blessing."

Berry says "Robots" is her "first stab" at an animated film, and the process is interesting, to say the least: "You're in a sound booth alone. None of the other actors are there. The cast is there. You sometimes hear their voice, sometimes you don't. I worked a lot with our director, and he played all the parts, and I played off with him. And you just do it over and over. I think I did the voice, my complete voice, ten times."

She told Smith you don't try to match your voice to the pictures – it's the other way around: "They animate to your voice, and that way you have a lot of freedom. You can create whatever you want and then they match the voice to that, but the trick is, they do it over and over and over and over. So you go through, you do the whole script once and then they think, well, we want to change her a little bit, and they change all the lines, and you go back and do the whole thing again. And they keep tweaking it for -- almost two years, I worked on this."

Directed by Chris Wedge, "Robots" also features the voices of Mel Brooks, Drew Carey, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, and Robin Williams, among many others.