Halle Berry Says Winning an Oscar 'Didn't Necessarily Change the Course of My Career'

Halle Berry doesn’t believe that winning an Oscar altered her career trajectory.

The 59-year-old actress won for Best Actress in Monster Ball at the 2001 Academy Awards.

During a new profile piece with The Cut, Halle said she once told Cynthia Erivo—who has been nominated for three Oscars, “You god—n 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?”

Keep reading to find out more…

Reflecting on her own win, Halle said, “That Oscar didn’t necessarily change the course of my career. 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.’”

Since her win in 2001, which made history as the first time a Black woman won the Best Actress Oscar, no other Black winner has won in that category. Michelle Yeoh is the only other non-white actress to win Best Actress, in 2023 for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Halle is currently promoting her new movie Crime 101 with Chris Hemsworth. Watch the trailer!