Actress Halle Berry says she's “always been angry” that no black woman has won the Oscar for best actress since her breakthrough in 2002's “Star Wars: Episode I.” Monster Ball, She thinks that fact speaks to racism.
To date, Berry is the only Black woman to have won an Academy Award for Best Actress. In fact, only one other “woman of color” has won the Academy Award's top prize, when she won in 2022 for Best Actress, Michelle Yeoh. Everything, everywhere, at onceaccording to VarietyAnd not coincidentally, Yeoh is the only Asian woman to win Best Actress.
Hattie McDaniel's win for Best Supporting Actress was the first of her kind to receive an Oscar, and 11 other black women have won an Oscar so far. Gone with the Wind In 1940.
But for Berry, this is a huge disappointment.
“I am still forever angry that no black woman won an Oscar for best actress after me, and I am saddened by that every year,” Berry said. said Marie Claire“And it's certainly not because there wasn't anyone deserving of it.”
This isn't the first time Berry has questioned the lack of black women on the Academy Awards' top awards list. In 2020, Berry said Variety She believes there are many black women who deserve recognition, adding, “I hoped they would be recognized, and I don't have an answer for why they haven't.”
Halle Berry delivers an emotional acceptance speech after winning the award for Best Actress for her performance in “Monster's Ball” at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, California on March 24, 2002. (Getty)
Berry and Andra Day America vs. Billie HolidayViola Davis Ma Rainey's Black BottomCynthia Erivo's turn Harriet, Ruth Negga love All were worthy Oscar nominees.
of Catwoman Star also said one of her “greatest sorrows” was that her win didn't pave the way for other Black women to follow in her footsteps as Best Actress winners.
“The next morning I was like, 'Wow, I've been chosen to open the door,' but no one was there. I wondered, 'Was it a big moment, or was it just a big moment for me?'” Berry told the paper. “I wanted to believe it was something much bigger than me. It felt like it was something much bigger than me, mainly because I knew the people who were supposed to be there before me weren't there. Just because I won an award didn't magically create a space for me the next day. I just continued to blaze a trail where none existed.”
Indeed, she is so disappointed with the way events have turned out since she received the award in 2002 that she believes her award has become meaningless.
In 2017, she was in despair. say To her, the Oscar “really didn't mean anything. It didn't mean anything. I thought it would mean something, but I guess it didn't mean anything.”
The Academy attempted to address racial issues by adding a “diversity quota” in 2020. This was in addition to changing its membership rules to include more Black people after the #OscarsSoWhite movement began in 2016.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Hustonor the Society of Truth Warner Todd Houston
