*Halle Berry shared candid insights about her historic Academy Award achievement during a recent profile with The Cut promoting her upcoming thriller “Crime 101.”
The actress, who broke barriers in 2002 with her “Monster’s Ball” performance, revealed she cautioned Cynthia Erivo against expecting an Oscar to transform her professional opportunities. Erivo has received two best actress nominations for “Harriet” and “Wicked.”
Berry’s triumph marked a groundbreaking moment, yet she remains the sole Black woman to win in this category over two decades later. The anticipated career surge never materialized following her victory, as Berry explained the award didn’t alter her trajectory. She recalled expecting opportunities to flood in but instead found herself facing the same industry resistance. “I was still Black that next morning,” Berry said, noting filmmakers continued questioning whether casting Black women would require reimagining entire projects as “Black movies” that supposedly wouldn’t perform internationally.
When Erivo’s career gained momentum with Academy recognition years later, Berry offered measured counsel rooted in personal experience, telling her to embrace the honor without treating it as life-changing validation.
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Berry has consistently expressed frustration about the lack of progress her victory represented. In the Apple TV+ documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet,” Berry, alongside Taraji P. Henson and Whoopi Goldberg, addresses the industry’s ongoing diversity struggles. While reflecting on her historic win, she questioned its lasting impact, asking, “… did it matter? Did it really change anything for women of colour? For my sisters? For our journey?”
Despite initial hopes that other Black actresses would follow her achievement, Berry has reached a sobering conclusion. The 2021 Oscar race appeared promising when both Andra Day for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” and Viola Davis for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” earned nominations. “I felt 100% sure that this was the year one of them was gonna walk away with this award,” she said, adding: “For equally different and beautiful reasons, they both deserved it, and I thought for sure.”
However, when Frances McDormand claimed the trophy for “Nomadland,” Berry recognized a familiar pattern emerging. “The system is not really designed for us, and so we have to stop coveting that which is not for us,” she added. “Because at the end of the day, it’s ‘How do we touch the lives of people?’ and that fundamentally is what art is for.”
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