Veteran actress Halle Berry wrote her name in the history books in 2002 when she became the first Black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the Monster’s Ball movie.
But Berry, in a recent interview with The Cut, stated that her history-making Oscar win did not “necessarily” alter her career course, as movie directors still had reservations about giving her roles because of the color of her skin.
Berry said she initially thought she was going to be flooded with movie scripts after winning the Oscar for Best Actress, but that wasn’t the case. The 59-year-old remains the only Black woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
“That Oscar didn’t necessarily change the course of my career. After I won it, I thought there was going to be, like, a script truck showing up outside my front door,” Berry stated.
“While I was wildly proud of it, I was still Black that next morning. Directors were still saying, ‘If we put a Black woman in this role, what does this mean for the whole story? Do I have to cast a Black man? Then it’s a Black movie. Black movies don’t sell overseas.’”
The Die Another Day star also opened up about something she told fellow actress Cynthia Erivo. The British-Nigerian actress is a three-time Oscar nominee, and what Berry told her had to do with winning the award, per The Cut.
“You goddamn deserve it, but I don’t know that it’s going to change your life. It cannot be the validation for what you do, right?” Berry said in reference to what she told Erivo.
This isn’t the first time Berry has opened up about her history-making Oscar win. In a 2024 interview with Marie Claire, she disclosed that she was “continually saddened” over being the only Black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress.
“I’m still eternally miffed that no Black woman has come behind me for that best actress Oscar, I’m continually saddened by that year after year,” Berry revealed at the time. “And it’s certainly not because there has been nobody deserving.”
Berry also highlighted Black actresses who equally deserved to be awarded an Oscar for Best Actress for their stellar roles in movies. She made mention of Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday and Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Berry, in a previous interview with Variety, also touched on that same topic and even made a similar reference to Black actresses who deserved to win an Oscar in that category. At the time, she said that performances by Cynthia Erivo in Harriet and Ruth Negga in Loving, deserved an Oscar recognition.
“I thought there were women that rightfully, arguably, could have, should have. I hoped they would have, but why it hasn’t gone that way, I don’t have the answer,” she said at the time.
Berry also explained that winning the Oscar for Best Actress was “one of my biggest heartbreaks” because it did not fulfill its purpose of giving fellow Black women a seat at the table.
“The morning after, I thought, ‘Wow, I was chosen to open a door.’ And then, to have no one … I question, ‘Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?’” she questioned.
“I wanted to believe it was so much bigger than me. It felt so much bigger than me, mainly because I knew others should have been there before me and they weren’t…just because I won an award doesn’t mean that, magically, the next day, there was a place for me. I was just continuing to forge a way out of no way.”
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