Halle Berry has said she now believes her historic Oscars win in 2002, for Monster’s Ball, was an anomaly, and that fellow black female actors should therefore stop “coveting” Academy Awards.
Berry, now 58, is the only black woman to have won the leading actress Oscar in the awards’ nearly 100 year history. Cynthia Erivo’s nomination for Wicked earlier this year marks only the second time, after Viola Davis, that a woman of colour has been nominated for the leading actress Oscar more than once (she was previously nominated for Harriet). Only 15 black women have ever been in contention for the prize.
Speaking on upcoming documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, Berry said that the 23 years since her victory have “forced me to ask myself, did it matter? Did it really change anything for women of colour? For my sisters? For our journey?”
Berry adds that she felt the tide would turn in 2021, when both Andra Day and Viola Davis were nominated, for The United States vs Billie Holiday and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom respectively.
“I felt 100% sure that this was the year one of them was gonna walk away with this award,” she says, adding: “For equally different and beautiful reasons, they both deserved it, and I thought for sure.”
However, both women losing out to Frances McDormand for Nomadland made Berry reconsider, she said.
“The system is not really designed for us, and so we have to stop coveting that which is not for us. 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.”
The documentary also features Taraji P Henson and Whoopi Goldberg expressing amazement over the dearth of leading actress winners – and nominees.
“Wait a minute, none of us were good enough?” Goldberg asks. “Nobody? In all of these people, nobody? … What are we missing here? This is a conversation people have every year.”
Goldberg won the best supporting actress Oscar in 1990 for Ghost; some 11 black women have now been given that award.
“I don’t think the industry really sees us as leads, you know?” says Henson in the documentary. “They give us supporting [actress awards] like they give out candy canes. That just – I don’t know what to do with that. Because what are you saying to me?”
• This article was amended on 2 April 2025. An earlier version stated incorrectly that Cynthia Erivo was the first woman of colour to have been nominated for the leading actress Oscar more than once.
