Pierce Brosnan is back as Bond - James Bond - in the twentieth installment of the 007 series. With the help of fast cars, faster women and a enough high tech gizmos that make The Sharper Image look like an amateur five and dime, Bond travels around the globe to unveil a traitor and prevent a global disaster. But on his way, he crosses paths with a woman who has her own mission to tend to. She's smart, sexy and she doesn't want to shoot him after cuddling. How refreshing.

Just who is this mysterious femme fatale? Her name is Jinx and she's one tough cookie. Just ask Halle Berry. I recently caught up with the Oscar-winning actress to find out what it was like being a Bond girl and what really went on behind the scenes of "Die Another Day." Here's how our conversation went…

Halle Berry stars in Die Another Day

So what did you think when they called and asked you if you wanted to do a Bond film? Did you hesitate at all?
I just thought, 'They must be crazy.' I thought, 'A Bond movie?' What part am I gonna play? I thought I would be a really good villain, then they said, "No, a Bond girl" then I thought, 'What kind of Bond girl am I gonna be?' Then I read the script. Really, after the first scene, the first time when Jinx went to bed with Bond, and then he woke up and she was gone… I thought, 'Oh yeah, this is the Bond girl for me.' It was great.

Can you tell us how things changed on the set when you left to attend the Oscars? That had to have changed the mood on set.
Well, the mood did change, but it was gradual. The excitement was building because I was on that set when I got the nomination so everyone was in shock as I was. And then it just kept building. They worked the schedule to give me many days off to fly to LA or go to New York for a dinner or review board meeting, all kinds of things. So when I came back and I had won, the set just erupted. And it was hard for everybody to concentrate for a while because it was so exciting and they were so much a part of it.

Can you tell me where you keep your Oscar?
Right now he is in my home office, where some of the other ones are.

How much training goes into a movie like this? There's a lot of fighting going on so I'd imagine there's a lot of chances at getting hurt.
Yeah, well luckily I was a gymnast as a very young girl, so a lot of the stuff I just sorta fell back into. But I had never worked with knives before, other than in the kitchen. I've never thrown any knives and I never really held a gun or fired a gun. I actually have a little bit of a phobia you know with guns. I've never really dealt with them much, so those were things that I had to overcome. I also had to try to operate these things with ease as if I were a trained assassin and that was a challenge for me.

Did you get into it?
I did get into it and it's so funny because on the days that I had to throw the knives, the crew would be walking and ducking at the same time. They never knew what I was going to be doing.

Didn't you just come off production from Monster's Ball? You just went from this tiny little indie film to one of the biggest franchises in the world. Wasn't that a trip?
That was a shock. It's big. And you don't realize how big it is until you're really a part of it. The sets were big, the press was big… we did a huge press junket before we even shot a foot of film. Two thousand journalists from all around the world, and we're on top of this Austin Martin and I'm thinking, 'Wow.' I mean they had no questions to ask me because I hadn't done anything yet! Stuff like, "Who's Jinx?" Well I don't know. "How's the filming?" Well I haven't done it yet. There was nothing to really talk about but they were all there. I thought it was insane.

Do you have a favorite Bond girl?
I really liked Honey Ryder which was Ursula Andress and Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) and I like the one in Golden Eye, that's one of my favorite bond movies ever. I like Michelle Yeou (Tomorrow Never Dies). She was that next step. She was pretty strong and tough.

I understand there was a scary sequence in the film when you were trying to get on a plane and it was moving a whopping 15 miles an hour… can you explain?
Well… I couldn't catch it. That's what happened. And if you can't catch it, you can't get on it [laughing]. Pierce made it look so easy in rehearsal and I thought, 'Ya know, it's bairly rolling. He's doing it without breaking a sweat - so surly I'm in good enough shape and I can do it.' I tried -- and you know I felt like a gerbil! He was just like a gazelle. I finally had to give up. After each take I'd start off right with him and slowly he and the plane would just leave me behind. And I'd get so mad I'd throw down my radio and start kicking and screaming. Then I'd beg them to give me another try. They were telling me, "Halle, the sun is about to come up, you have to stop." And so I finally just excepted defeat and said reluctantly, "Okay. Bring in the double." I just couldn't do it!

Halle Berry + Orange Swimsuit = One Happy 007!

I heard there was another scary moment when you were doing a love scene with Pierce and a piece of fruit?
Yeah, we were doing a scene and I had some fruit in my mouth and I guess I was being a little bit too sexy for myself - and it got caught in my throat and no air was coming out. Pierce said that he knew I was choking because I wasn't coughing and he'd always heard that if people weren't coughing they were really choking. Then he just jumped behind me and hit me on my back and out it came. And that was what ended the love scene.

Can you tell me what it was like working with Pierce?
He was great. He's been with the whole 007 crew for years now and he just made me feel so welcome. He sets the tone. He is Bond so he made it a beautiful and comfortable set. He let us all have our moment, when it was our time to have the light in the scene. And when it was time for him to be Bond, we let him be Bond. So it was a great working relationship. He's a family man so he always had his kids in tow and his wife there. It was nice.

Has the Oscar changed your career in respect to the press?
Well…some people win an Oscar and they just sort of fall off the face of the planet. And you think, 'What happened to so and so?' I think some people do change the way they approach their career because now they have an Oscar and they try to pick material befitting an Oscar winner. I think you just never know what it's going to bring you. I want to just stay the same - keep taking risks, keep taking chances, keep pushing the envelope. Sometimes I'll fail, sometimes I'll win. I'll keep doing things that inspire me as an artist and not get caught up in what's the next best thing. Which is why it's so great because it's Bond and it's the total wrong thing [to do] but it's going to be the best thing.

Are you thinking of producing some stuff for yourself?
Yeah, I've got six projects in line for the first time in my entire career. Three of those are things that I'm going to be producing. That's what I'm doing for this five minutes of being reigning Oscar queen - if you get these guys on the phone you have to really have an idea and I think that's true for every Oscar winner. There's a big misconception, that if you win an Oscar there's this big truckload of great scripts and great directors standing out there wanting you. The Oscar is good, but you have to know how to wield that power and have your own ideas and your own creative energies. This is a tough industry and I think there's no woman alive except Julia Roberts who can sit back and just get great projects thrown her way. I think she's the only woman who has that luxury.

Halle Berry is Jinx in the new Bond flick Die Another Day

Of course you have X-Men 2 coming up…
Yes, I have two more days of work on that.

I know you're sworn to secrecy, but pa-lease tell me that she gets to do a lot more this time around.
Well, think of it this way, she didn't get to do much last time and there's five new characters. It's very much an ensemble cast and Wolverine leads the bunch.

Damn.
I know.

Being one of the most famous faces in America, are you always recognized and hounded or do you have the freedom to walk around without being recognized 24/7?
There's good days with that and there's bad days. Some days it seems like I have a light on my head wherever I go - and some days I slip through without anyone saying a word. I don't know why that happens, everyday is different.

You haven't been driven to wear disguises or anything like that?
No. My biggest disguise is no makeup and a baseball hat. And most people think I'm a man. I get more "sirs" when I have on no makeup and a baseball hat and baggy clothes. That way they can't see that I'm a woman.

I find that hard to believe! Hey, did you swipe any sovieniers from the movie?
I have a couple of my knives. I didn't keep any of the clothes. They go to the Bond Archives. Oh, and a couple little gadgets they don't know I have.

You didn't get to keep that cool orange swim suit?!
Nope.

Damn again. Some actors, they paint, or sing or they have some kind of hobby that's not related to their craft. Is there something that you do that's not related to the industry that you just love to do?
Well I do love to sing thing, but [that's] for my ears only. I don't have a real hobby.

Do you put on some R&B and just sing around the house?
Yeah. R&B and old Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holliday, Dorothy Dandridge or Etta James.

Do you enjoy watching yourself on the screen and did you enjoy your entrance into this movie?
I don't enjoy really enjoy watching myself on screen and that's a really tough thing to do. It's hard, when you see your face as big as a Buick - or your body. You think, 'Wow, is that what I really look like?' You don't really know yourself until you see all the angles of the camera. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you pretty much just see your face head on. You don't see all the nuances of your face. And when I listened to my voice on a movie I thought, 'Oh, god, is that what I sound like?' Sometimes it's disarming.

Did you worry about that entrance and the whole bikini thing? Were you worried at all about being in shape?
Working out is something I do a couple days a week anyway so I didn't do anything extra. I do half an hour of cardio and half an hour of free weights, plus sit-ups and stuff like that. I don't kill myself. It's an hour in and then I'm out.

What's your big indulgence?
[Halle flashes a big diamond pinkie ring and laughs evilly] Oh, and I love PayDay candy bars.

Judging by the size of that rock on your finger - it looks like you've already had plenty of paydays Halle. Plenty!