Halle Berry reflected on her status as the only Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar in a recent interview with Marie Claire. Only one other woman of color, the ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ star Michelle Yeoh, won the award since she got it for ‘Monster’s Ball’ in 2002.
“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 shared. “And it’s certainly not because there has been nobody deserving.”
The ‘Catwoman’ actress highlighted performances from the likes of Andra Day in ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ and Viola Davis in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ as deserving of Oscars. She also mentioned Cynthia Erivo in ‘Harriet’ and Ruth Negga in ‘Loving’ as part of the list in past comments to Variety.
Seeing that her win as a Black woman didn’t really pave the way for more recognition of these actresses disappointed Berry. “I question, ‘Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?’” she explained to the outlet in 2020.
“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.”
Halle Berry recently starred in Netflix’s ‘The Union’ with Mark Wahlberg and will soon appear in the horror film ‘Never Let Go,’ which releases in theaters on September 20.
