Oscar Flashback: 2002, the night when both lead acting winners (as well as the night’s honorary recipient) were African American
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In 2002, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington famously became the first African American performers to win lead acting Oscars in the same year (and still the only time ever). Berry was the first woman of color ever to win Best Actress (for “Monster’s Ball”) and only the third ever in any acting category, following supporting victors Hattie McDaniel for “Gone with the Wind” (1940) and Whoopi Goldberg for “Ghost” (1991) a half-century later. For Washington, his triumph for “Training Day” was his second Academy Award statuette (following a 1990 supporting win for “Glory”) and just the fifth ever for a Black male actor.
March 24, 2002 proved to be something of a magical night. Not only did Berry and Washington cap the night with wins, but Sidney Poitier, who won the first trophy for an African American male actor with his lead victory in 1964 for “Lilies of the Field,” was bequeathed an honorary award “for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence.”
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Taking the stage to a thunderous ovation, Poitier began, “I arrived in Hollywood at the age of 22 in a time different than today’s, a time in which the odds against my standing here tonight 53 years later would not have fallen in my favor. Back then, no route had been established for where I was hoping to go, no pathway left in evidence for me to trace, no custom for me to follow.” Poitier continued, “Yet, here I am this evening at the end of a journey that in 1949 would have been considered almost impossible and in fact might never have been set in motion were there not an untold number of courageous, unselfish choices made by a handful of visionary American filmmakers, directors, writers and producers.”
He concluded, “I accept this award in memory of all the African American actors and actresses who went before me in the difficult years, on whose shoulders I was privileged to stand to see where I might go.”
Poitier’s stirring acceptance perfectly set the stage for what was to come.
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Berry was not favored to win. Sissy Spacek was expected to claim the trophy for “In the Bedroom.” The other nominees were Renee Zellweger for “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Nicole Kidman for “Moulin Rouge!” and Judi Dench for “Iris.” As soon as presenter Russell Crowe opened the envelope and uttered Berry’s name, she immediately flashed a shocked expression and mouthed the words, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”. She’s then hugged by her mother as the entire audience rises as one to applaud.
The first thing Berry said into the mic was “Oh my God!” again with a cracked voice as the tears of joy begin to flow. Then one more “Oh my God” and “I’m sorry” before she was able to steel and gather herself.
“This moment,” she powerfully uttered through constant tears, “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.”
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At this point, she was interrupted by audience applause for 20 seconds or so before steeling herself to continue. “Thank you, I’m so honored. I’m so honored. I want to thank the academy for choosing me to be the vessel. I want to thank my manager, Vincent Cirrincione. He’s been with me for 12 long years and you’ve fought every fight, and you’ve loved me when I’ve been up, but more importantly you’ve loved me when I’ve been down. You have been a manager, a friend, and the only father I’ve ever known. I love you very much.
“I want to thank my mom, who has given me the strength to fight every single day to be who I want to be, and has given me the courage to dream that this dream might be happening and possible for me. I love you, mom, so much. Thank you. My husband, who is just the joy of my life. And India, thank you for giving me peace, because only with the peace that you’ve brought me have I been allowed to go to places that I never even knew I could go. Thank you. I love you and India with all my heart.”
Berry was just getting warmed up.
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“I want to thank Lionsgate. Thank you, Mike Paseornek, Tom Ortenberg, for making sure everybody knew about this little tiny movie. Thank you for believing in me. Our director Marc Forster, you’re a genius. You’re a genius. This moviemaking experience was magical for me because of you. You believed in me, you trusted me and you gently guided me to very scary places. I thank you. I want to thank Ivana Chubbuck. I could have never figured out who the heck this lady was without you. I love you. Thank you. I want to thank Lee Daniels, our producer. Thank you for giving me this chance, for believing that I could do it. And now tonight I have this. Thank you.
The speech was starting to run long. But there wasn’t a chance in hell the orchestra wasn’t going to play her off. Not this winner. Not this night.
“I want to thank my agents. CAA, Josh Lieberman especially. I have to thank my agents. Kevin Huvane, thank you. Thank you for never kicking me out and sending me somewhere else. Thank you. Um… I, I, I, who else? I have so many people that I know I need to thank. My lawyers! Neil Meyer, thank you. Okay, wait a minute. I got to take… seventy-four years here! I got to take this time! I got to thank my lawyer Neil Meyer for making this deal. Doug Stone. I need to thank lastly and not leastly, I have to thank Spike Lee for putting me in my very first film and believing in me. Oprah Winfrey, for being the best role model any girl can have. Joel Silver, thank you. And thank you to Warren Beatty. Thank you so much for being my mentors and believing in me. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Next, it was Washington’s turn, after presenter Julia Roberts opened the envelope and uttered his name rather than that of his fellow nominees Crowe (for “A Beautiful Mind”), Will Smith (for “Ali”), Tom Wilkinson (“In the Bedroom”) or Sean Penn (“I Am Sam”).
“The Oscar goes to,” Roberts said, “I love my life: Denzel Washington!”
The camera flashed on Poitier enthusiastically clapping while holding his own Oscar and smiling broadly.
“Two birds in one night, huh?” Washington began, followed by laughter. “Oh, God is good. God is great. God is great. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Forty years I’ve been chasing Sidney [Poitier], they finally give it to me, what’d they do? They give it to him the same night.”
No one laughs harder at this than Poitier.
Washington continued, I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney. I’ll always be following in your footsteps. There’s nothing I would rather do, sir. Nothing I would rather do. God bless you. God bless you.” Poitier holds out his Academy Award in salute.
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“I want to thank the Academy. You know, when I was in college first starting out as an actor, they asked each one of us what we wanted to do. I said I want to be the best actor in the world. All the students in the classroom looked at me like I was a nut. Life has taught me to just try and be the best that I can be, and I thank the academy for saying to me that on this given night I was the best that I could be.
“I want to thank Warner Bros. and Alan Horn and Lorenzo di Bonaventura for supporting this film. And Antoine Fuqua, a brilliant young filmmaker, African American filmmaker. I don’t know where you are, Antoine, love you. Ethan Hawke, my partner in crime. So many people, I can’t even remember everybody, lawyers, doctors, agents… My beautiful agent, Ed Limato. We’ve been together for so many years. Hometown boy from Mount Vernon. My beautiful wife. I love you so much. You put up with me, in spite of myself. And my beautiful children at home. I told you if I lost tonight I would come home and we’d celebrate and if I won tonight I would come home and we’d celebrate. Well, I’m coming home, we’re celebrating. God bless you all.”
Washington’s speech was considerably shorter than Berry’s and certainly Poitier’s but no less sweet, on a rare night when Oscar was never less white.
However, the change that Berry predicted would come as a result of her win didn’t materialize. No other lead actress of color has won since. As Berry said in a 2022 interview with The New York Times 20 years after her triumph, “It didn’t open the door. The fact there’s no one standing next to me is heartbreaking.”
At the same time, she was also philosophical. “We can’t always judge success or progress by how many awards we have. Awards are the icing on the cake – they’re your peers saying you were exceptionally excellent this year. But does that mean that if we don’t get the exceptionally excellent nod, that we were not great, that we were not successful, and we’re not changing the world with our art, and our opportunities aren’t growing?”
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