Halle Berry Explains Why Winning an Oscar Is Actually One of Her ‘Biggest Heartbreaks’
Halle Berry is looking back on her historic Oscar win for best actress in 2002, but her emotions are much more mixed than you might expect. In that moment she became the first Black woman to win the award (for Monster's Ball)—and no other Black woman has won it since.
“It’s one of my biggest heartbreaks,” she told Variety in a new interview. “The morning after, I thought, Wow, I was chosen to open a door. And then to have no one…I question, ‘Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?’ 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.”
Berry is disappointed she's still the only Black woman to take home the best-actress Oscar. “I thought Cynthia [Erivo, for Harriet] was going to do it last year. I thought Ruth [Negga, who was nominated for Loving in 2016] had a really good shot at it too,” she said. “I thought there were women that rightfully, arguably, could have, should have. I hoped they would have, but why it hasn’t gone that way, I don’t have the answer.”
Even after winning the Oscar, Berry didn't see the type of roles come her way that one might expect. “I think it’s largely because there was no place for someone like me,” she said. “I thought, Oh, all these great scripts are going to come my way; these great directors are going to be banging on my door. It didn’t happen. It actually got a little harder. They call it the Oscar curse. You’re expected to turn in award-worthy performances.”
But now Berry is taking her career into her own hands in a more literal way—making her directorial debut with Bruised, which will soon premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. “As an actor, I always show up and do my part, and I can only do what I can do,” she said. “Being the director, I have a part in the totality of every department. I get to have a voice. That was different, and I really loved that.”
She's also heartened by the increase in female directors getting their shot at projects that might have once gone to white men. “I definitely feel like there’s a turning point,” Berry told Variety. “I’m more encouraged that as women we are feeling confident enough to tell our stories. And there is a place for us to tell our stories. For so long, our experiences have been told narratively through the guise of men.”
Originally Appeared on Glamour
