Halle Berry made history in 2002 when she turned the primary black lady to win the Oscar for Finest Actress.
Nonetheless, 20 years on, no different African-American thespian has scored the prize.
The “X-Males” star, 55, seemed again on the night and admitted that she doesn’t suppose a lot progress has been made for actresses of colour.
“Again in these days, when you didn’t win the Globe, you actually didn’t get the Academy Award,” Berry told the New York Times recently.
She added, “So I’d just about resigned myself to believing, ‘It’s nice to be right here, however I’m not going to win.’ “
Sissy Spacek gained the Golden Globe that yr for her flip within the movie “Within the Bed room.” Berry obtained the Academy Award in 2002 for the drama “Monster’s Ball,” a gripping story of a grieving mom and widow.
“It didn’t open the door,” Berry continued. “The truth that there’s nobody standing subsequent to me is heartbreaking.”
The “Swordfish” star stated, “We are able to’t all the time decide success or progress by what number of awards we’ve got.”
“Awards are the icing on the cake — they’re your friends saying you had been exceptionally glorious this yr,” she informed the outlet. “However does that imply that if we don’t get the exceptionally glorious nod, that we weren’t nice, and we’re not profitable, and we’re not altering the world with our artwork, and our alternatives aren’t rising?”
Final yr’s Oscars ceremony had two black women nominated for his or her performances — Viola Davis for “Ma Rainey’s Black Backside” and Andra Day for “America vs. Billie Vacation.”
However this yr’s present doesn’t have any black ladies nominated for Finest Actress.
On the time of her win, Berry stated in her shifting speech, “This second is a lot greater than me. This second is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the ladies that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for each anonymous, faceless lady of colour that now has an opportunity as a result of this door tonight has been opened.”
Berry additionally recalled to the New York Instances the feelings she was feeling that fateful evening. “I don’t have any reminiscence of it,” she famous. “I don’t even know the way I bought up there. It was completely a blackout second. All I bear in mind is Russell Crowe saying, ‘Breathe, mate.’ After which I had a golden statue in my hand, and I simply began speaking.”
