Halle Berry Says She Is ‘Tired’ of Being the Only Black Best Actress Oscar Winner

Halle Berry is hoping to celebrate another Black actress winning the Oscar.

The Moonfall star — who became the first Black actress to win an Oscar in the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards for her role in 2002 Monster’s Ball — shared on Trevor Noah’s What Now? podcast that she is “tired” of being the only Black actress to have won the honor.

“I hope this year someone stands next to me,” said Berry, 58. “This year, I hope it happens because I’m tired of occupying that space alone.”

Cynthia Erivo is the only Black actress who earned a Best Actress nomination at this year’s Academy Awards for her performance as Elphaba in Wicked. Other nominees include Mikey Madison for Anora, Demi Moore for The Substance, Fernanda Torres for I’m Still Here and Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez.

Berry also reflected on her own history-making Oscars win on the What Now? podcast, noting that she felt she was “chosen” to “open that door” at the time. 

“I knew it was bigger than me,” she said of her win. “I was, in that moment, [destined] to be a beacon of possibility. And I do think it served that purpose.”

The Catwoman actress also noted that it didn’t come easy and she had to work hard to earn it. She said she has “always known” her own “value” and that has helped propel her to go on to succeed.

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“Being born a Black woman, I feel like I have always felt like I sat at the bottom of society,” Berry explained. 

“White man, Black man, white woman, Black woman,” she continued. “So I’ve always felt at the bottom, never feeling like I was defeated because I was at the bottom, never feeling like I couldn’t dream big because I was at the bottom, never feeling like I wasn’t worthy or capable because I was at the bottom. But I always have known that I’m going to have to work 10 times harder than everybody else to get anywhere.” 

Berry has previously discussed the challenges she’s faced as an actress — even after her history-making Oscar win. In 2021, she shared with Entertainment Weekly that the win didn’t change her career in the way she expected.

“It was surprising, because I thought they were going to just back up the truck and drop them off at my house, right?” Berry said of winning Hollywood’s top prize but not getting an influx of offers after.

“When you have a historic win like that, you think, ‘Oh, this is going to fundamentally change,'” she continued. “It did fundamentally change me, but it didn’t change my place in the business overnight. I still had to go back to work. I still had to try to fight to make a way out of no way.”