Halle Berry Says Paparazzi Do Terrible Things To Her Daughter + How A Black Woman Helped Her With Identity Issues

Halle Berry is gracing the November 2012 issue of The New York Times T Style magazine. Rocking Versace and Ferragamo, the ‘Cloud Atlas’ star opens up about her ongoing feud with photogs, her unpleasant high school experience and how she had a difficult time as a bi-racial child, identifying with her white mother. Peep a few excerpts:

On dealing with the paparazzi:

“They’re outside my house every morning. I get it about the celebrity stuff, It’s part of my job to recognize that there’s a certain part of my life the public wants to hear about. But it’s not O.K. that they’re doing terrible things to my daughter. One night, after they chased us, it took me two hours just to get her calmed down enough to get to sleep.”

On struggling with acceptance in High School:

“I always had to prove myself through my actions. Be a cheerleader. Be class president. Be the editor of the newspaper. It gave me a way to show who I was without being angry or violent. By the time I left school, I had a lot of tenacity. I’d turned things around.”

On how a black nurse (Yvonne Sims) in elementary school became her role model: 

“My mother tried hard. But there was no substitute for having a black woman I could identify with, who could teach me about being black. Yvonne taught me not to let the criticism affect me. She inspired me to be the best and gave me a model of a great black woman.”

Read the full interview here.