Halle Berry Won an Oscar and Says ‘I Was Still Black the Next Morning’ With Directors Refusing to Cast Her; She Later Advised Cynthia Erivo That Oscar Wins ‘Cannot Be Validation’
Halle Berry Won an Oscar and Says ‘I Was Still Black the Next Morning’ With Directors Refusing to Cast Her; She Later Advised Cynthia Erivo That Oscar Wins ‘Cannot Be Validation’
> “That Oscar didn’t necessarily change the course of my career,” Berry told the publication. “After I won it, I thought there was going to be, like, a script truck showing up outside my front door. While I was wildly proud of it, I was still Black that next morning. Directors were still saying, ‘If we put a Black woman in this role, what does this mean for the whole story? Do I have to cast a Black man? Then it’s a Black movie. Black movies don’t sell overseas.’”
> As Cynthia Erivo’s acting career took off years later with its own Oscar nominations, Berry told her fellow performer: “You goddamn deserve it, but I don’t know that it’s going to change your life. It cannot be the validation for what you do, right?”
DianneNettix on
I would love to cast her in a good Catwoman movie. A whole “one last job” kind of thing. It could work.
smiskam on
This sucks for her. I think more so as a black woman because it seems like A list black men like Denzel Washington, Will Smith, etc can get good roles
DiligentEase2268 on
Very true. If it couldn’t help a light skinned Black woman it definitely won’t help a dark skinned one either. Since they already have a harder time getting roles because of colorism.
TheDyeus on
I don’t think it was the Oscar that hurt, it was Catwoman. She should have skipped that job.
Top-Berry-2844 on
It’s hard being openly-black. She was the first openly-black person to win Best Actress. I used to just say black, but since people insist on saying openly-gay…I insist on openly-black and openly-female, etc.
6 Comments
> “That Oscar didn’t necessarily change the course of my career,” Berry told the publication. “After I won it, I thought there was going to be, like, a script truck showing up outside my front door. While I was wildly proud of it, I was still Black that next morning. Directors were still saying, ‘If we put a Black woman in this role, what does this mean for the whole story? Do I have to cast a Black man? Then it’s a Black movie. Black movies don’t sell overseas.’”
> As Cynthia Erivo’s acting career took off years later with its own Oscar nominations, Berry told her fellow performer: “You goddamn deserve it, but I don’t know that it’s going to change your life. It cannot be the validation for what you do, right?”
I would love to cast her in a good Catwoman movie. A whole “one last job” kind of thing. It could work.
This sucks for her. I think more so as a black woman because it seems like A list black men like Denzel Washington, Will Smith, etc can get good roles
Very true. If it couldn’t help a light skinned Black woman it definitely won’t help a dark skinned one either. Since they already have a harder time getting roles because of colorism.
I don’t think it was the Oscar that hurt, it was Catwoman. She should have skipped that job.
It’s hard being openly-black. She was the first openly-black person to win Best Actress. I used to just say black, but since people insist on saying openly-gay…I insist on openly-black and openly-female, etc.