In 2002, Halle Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Monster ball. Almost 20 years later, Berry remains the only black woman to receive the prestigious award – a distinction that disturbs her.
“The hurt I have is because I really thought that night would mean that soon after, other women of color, black women, would be by my side. Now 20 years have passed and no one has done it, so every time it’s Oscar time, I’m very reflective and think, “Well, maybe this year, maybe this year,” said the 54-year-old star. Mirror in an interview. “It’s heartbreaking that no one else was there.”
It is not the first time that Berry has reflected on his expectations for Hollywood and the fact that no other black woman has followed his historic victory. Inside Variety last fall, Berry shared, “I thought Cynthia [Erivo, the star of Harriet] was going to do that last year. I thought Ruth [Negga, nominated for 2016’s Loving] had a very good chance at that too. I thought there were women who legitimately, without a doubt, could, should have. I hoped so, but why not, I don’t have the answer. “
When Berry took the stage to receive her award in 2002, she told the audience: “This moment is much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It is for the women next to me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it is for every woman of color with no name and no face that now has a chance because this door has been opened tonight. “
Berry herself is once again circling the Oscar conversation, this time for her role in Injured, in which she starred and directed. The role she plays, conceived as a 25-year-old white Irishwoman, required a bit of subtlety for Berry to land while she had to convince the producers that she was the right person for this comeback martial arts fighter story.
“I knew ‘as it is written’ that the role could not be me. But what I loved was that it was a classic fighting movie, ”she says.
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