Halle Berry, Inspired By Her Mother, Stars in Frankie and Alice [Trailer]
by Jack de Aguilar | 20 February 2014
Following its 2010 release, Frankie and Alice finally gets its well deserved nationwide bow.
It’s been a relatively quiet few years for Halle Berry on the movie front – her role in Cloud Atlasbeing the last ‘big’ one before X-Men: Days of Future Past (due May 2014). But in Frankie and Alice, she gets the chance to fulfil a role close to her heart. But Berry actually filmed this film a whopping 6 years ago in 2008, while the 2010 release date only applied to Europe.
Having been shelved, Frankie & Alice finally finds itself hitting U.S shores following a limited release to allow it to compete in the awards scene. The film – based on a true story – sees Berry star as a go-go dancer with a dissociative identity disorder. Her alter egos include a 7-year-old child named Genius and a Southern racist woman named Alice, who also happens to be white. In a bid to cure the voices in her head, Frankie visits a top psychotherapist, played by Stellan Skarsgard.
According to an interview with NAMI, the role gives Berry "the opportunity to embrace a challenging, complex role" as an actress, and the film is important to her because it "helps put light into a dark space." Berry explored the idea further: "People who live with mental illness often struggle. Others look down on them or have negative opinions of them. Hopefully this film will do some good. It promotes the importance of compassion for others [and] helps educate the public,” she said.
"My main message is one of hope," added Berry, whose passion for the role derives from her mother, who worked for 35 years as a psychiatric nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs. "Stories of mental illness have been a part of my life and on my radar for a long time."
Geoffrey Sax, who is known for his work on White Noise, directs Frankie & Alice. It is due for release in US cinemas on April 4, with a UK date yet to be confirmed.
