Halle Berry is one of the biggest movie stars of all time. That is a fact. Sure, she’s played Catwoman in that abomination of a movie, but her career includes major credits such as Monster’s Ball (2001), the role of Storm in four installments of the X-Men film series (2000–2014), the henchwoman of a robber in the thriller Swordfish (2001), and Bond girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also has significant roles in Perfect Stranger (2007), Cloud Atlas (2012), and The Call (2013), as well as Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019).

Her role in Monster’s Ball earned her an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which is when she became the (so far) only African-American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the first woman of color.

In a recent big interview for Marie Claire, the actress, among other things, discussed her career in film and she had a very interesting and enlightening comment on her Oscars win, citing a problem that still exists and that could actually be a symptom of a much deeper-rooted issue.

The Marie Claire interview was a major one, as Halle Berry discussed various aspects of her life and career. While we could dedicate several reports to that interview, what interests us here are her thoughts on the state of the Academy after her incredible Oscar victory 22 years ago. Here is what she said:

I’m still eternally miffed that no Black woman has come behind me for that best actress Oscar, I’m continually saddened by that year after year. And it’s certainly not because there has been nobody deserving.

Source: Marie Claire

And this is a very sad and grim reality – no Black woman has won a Best Actress Oscar since Halle Berry; we know Michelle Yeoh only recently became the first Asian woman to do so. And don’t think that we did not have memorable roles: Andra Day’s amazing role in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Cynthia Erivo in Harriet, Ruth Negga in Loving, and Viola Davis’s lead in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, just to name a few.

Now, no one is implying here that it is a problem, but this might be another symptom of the systemic issues that had marked a large part of the Academy’s history and that the current leadership is trying to fix. We know that the current solutions are not the best ones, but they are a step forward, and we can only welcome all current and future plans that will create a fairer society and help the progress of art in general.

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