Halle Berry says Oscars ‘not really designed’ for Black women as she reflects on her Best Actress win
“Did it really change anything for women of colour? For my sisters?” Halle Berry said of being the only Black woman ever to win Oscar for Best Actress
Halle Berry thinks the Academy Awards is “not really designed” for Black women. In the Apple TV+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, the 58-year-old opened up on being the first and only Black woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress in 2002.
Halle Berry on being the first and only Black woman to win Best Actress: ‘Did it really change anything?’
Out of the 13 Black actresses who were nominated for the prestigious title, Berry was the only one to be presented with it. More recently, Cynthia Erivo received the nod for Best Actress but lost to Anora's Mikey Madison, per Hollywood Reporter.
Reflecting on her historic win, the Never Let Go star revealed that it forced her to ask herself, “Did it matter?” “Did it really change anything for women of colour? For my sisters? For our journey?” she added.
Berry went on to recall how she thought things would change in 2021, when both Andra Day was nominated for The United States vs Billie Holiday and Viola Davis for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
“A few years ago, I was at the table with Andra Day, and I was across the room from Viola Davis, and they were both nominated for stellar performances, and I felt 100 percent sure that this was the year one of them was gonna walk away with this award,” she recalled.
“For equally different and beautiful reasons, they both deserved it, and I thought for sure,” Berry went on before urging her fellow Black actresses to “stop coveting” the Oscar Awards as the Best Actress that year went to Frances McDormand for Nomadland. It was her third Academy Awards win.
The Moonfall actress went on to say, “The system is not really designed for us, and so we have to stop coveting that which is not for us,” adding, “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.”
