By Jenny Halper in New York City

In “X-Men III: The Last Stand,” Halle Berry’s weather-controlling superhero Storm makes flying- and fighting while flying- look easy. But looks, according to the Oscar-winning actress, can be deceiving.

“I’d done the wire work in ‘Catwoman,’ but this time I had to do a lot of spinning,” said Berry, who helped director Brett Ratner shape her role in the intended last of the smash franchise. “I got a little sick. I got a lot sick. I sprayed the crew with vomit- you can not eat for two days, and fluid will come from somewhere.”

Radiating the improbable beauty of a movie star without a smidgen of the attitude, Berry showed up at a midtown hotel in jeans, no longer nauseous and eager to talk about “X-Men,” Oscars, and those pesky paparazzi.

Q: When you signed on to “The Last Stand,” did you realize Storm would become – for lack of a better term – the den mother?

HALLE: Be careful what you wish for! It wasn’t “I want to be on screen more,” but these movies take a big chunk out of our year, seven, eight, nine months sometimes. And I thought, if I’m going to put in the time then I just want a little more to do than hang around for nine months and do a little of nothing. It was becoming frustrating when I had other opportunities. So I said, “It’s not about more screen time, I don’t want to work more days, but when I am here, I want to have a point of view. If she talks for five minutes, let it be five minutes about something.”

Q: How did you think the character should play this time?

HALLE: I thought she should be outspoken. I thought it’s time that she somehow asserts her power and you realize that she is as powerful as Wolverine, as Professor M, that she is powerful in her own right. Because in the comic book she is. She was an African princess and she was revered in her country and loved in her country and very powerful in her country. I thought, “Why all of a sudden does she come to America and get weak?” I wanted Storm to come out of her shell.

Q: What was it like to work with Brett?

HALLE: He’s like five in a big man’s body. Has he rolled in here? He tell you about the time he put on the Wolverine costume? You know what Hugh (Jackman) looks like? And you know what Brett looks like? He put on Hugh’s costume. And he came out one night about three o clock in the morning, we were all like “I want to go home,” and he came out, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. And then he had to act out Hugh’s part.

Q: Did “Catwoman” make you want to be much more careful about what you pick?

HALLE: I can’t be careful about what I pick. What looks like on paper’s going to be a great script has often turned out to be a disaster. So there’s no way to know what’s going to work. If you put that kind of pressure on yourself, I don’t think anyone would ever work, because you never know for sure, this is going to be good.

Q: So you just ignore the bad reviews.

HALLE: Have you read the reviews of “Gigli?” “Ishtar?” Did you read those? When I did “Monster’s Ball,” which got me an Oscar, that was a risk. And I thought, “this sex scene, this could end my career.” If people don’t get this, this could be like my “Showgirls,” this could be it. But if it works it could be great, and what it could do for women in film and women in the world…so I thought, “risk it, what’s the worst that could happen? It doesn’t do well, I put on my big girl panties, deal with it, and move on.” What energizes me is that mystery, that factor of daring to take a risk that nobody expects you to do but you do it anyway. You don’t win by mediocrity or not risking. You win big by risking big. Because when you risk big, you know you’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. And that’s what makes the risk worth taking…

Q: What are you risking now?

HALLE: Well, in my next movie I have sex with myself. It’s called “Perfect Stranger.” I play an investigative reporter, and I’m investigating the death of my friend, and Bruce Willis plays…for lack of a better word, he’s my guy Friday, and in this movie I have to go into the darkest corner of the internet, that world where nobody is…chat rooms and cybersex.

Q: Is it getting easier to deal with paparazzi?

HALLE: I’ve just developed this duck like skin, it just roles off my back these days. And that’s a really empowering place to be. None of that stuff matters anymore, and I can sit here and say that truly. It’s really about me making decisions for my life and what’s best for me and my family and the people who are important to me. People love to chit chat and gossip, but do they really care?

Q: What are you working on now?

HALLE: This summer I’m going to be a doing a movie with Benicio Del Toro called “Things We Lost in the Fire.” It’s a drama, a little artsy, heavy issues, my character loses her husband and is dealing with life without him and two little kids and Benicio’s a heroin addict and their lives intersect and it’s about how they help each other grow and deal. It’s not tied up in a little bow, kind of messy.

Q: Has the Oscar allowed you to do more projects like that?

HALLE: Yeah. But what you also realize is that was a moment in time and that moment has long passed. There’s still many issues that need to be addressed. I was joking, “now does it mean this movie god’s going to come and drop all these great scripts at my front door?” And no, that doesn’t happen. Winning an award like that, even though you have a moment and the industry perceives you differently now, you still have to take that Oscar and make it what you want it to be. Use it the way you need to use it. You can’t say, I have it, it’s all going to come to me. How many Oscar winners do you remember from five years ago, two years ago? The heat of it wanes, because every year, someone else wins. It’s what you do with that. How you use that to further your career is really important.

“X: Men III: The Last Stand” Opens Nationwide on March 26th.