Actress Halle Berry made history in 2002 when she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in “Monster’s Ball.” The 55-year-old star recently did an interview with The New York Times discussing why she never expected to win.
“Back in those days, if you didn’t win the Globe, you really didn’t get the Academy Award,” Berry told the publication. “So I’d pretty much resigned myself to believing, ‘It’s great to be here, but I’m not going to win.'”
That year, Sissy Spacek won the Golden Globe for her work on “In The Bedroom.” However, Berry went on to take home the Oscar anyway. “It’s been 74 years,” Berry said during her speech at the time, indicating she was the first black woman to win the award since the Oscars began.
However, the “Moonfall” star isn’t thrilled that she’s still the only black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress two decades later.
“It didn’t open the door,” the actress said. “The fact that there’s no one standing next to me is heartbreaking.”
Berry admitted that awards aren’t the most important thing in the world, but it is nice to get recognition. She wishes more black women won after she did in 2002.
“We can’t always judge success or progress by how many awards we have,” Berry said.
“Awards are the icing on the cake — they’re your peers saying you were exceptionally excellent this year,” she told the NYT. “But does that mean that if we don’t get the exceptionally excellent nod, that we were not great, and we’re not successful, and we’re not changing the world with our art, and our opportunities aren’t growing?”
Last year’s Academy Awards included two black women nominated for their performances, though neither won the coveted prize. Viola Davis was up for the Best Actress award for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” plus Andra Day was nominated for “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”
Critics are upset that the 2022 show does not have any black women nominated for Best Actress. The Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, March 27.
Elsewhere in her 2002 Oscars acceptance speech, Berry said, “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”
She told the NYT the night is still a blur in her memory. “I don’t have any memory of it,” she said. “I don’t even know how I got up there. It was totally a blackout moment. All I remember is Russell Crowe saying, ‘Breathe, mate.’ And then I had a golden statue in my hand, and I just started talking.”
Enter for the chance to hang out with Gina Carano at the premiere of her new Daily Wire movie, Terror on the Prairie! Two lucky Daily Wire members will be given the complete red carpet treatment – free airfare, hotel, premiere car service, and exclusive merch. Daily Wire members can click here to enter for a chance to win. If you’re not a Daily Wire member yet, click here to join us so you can win this once-in-a-lifetime experience.