Within the evident highlight of Hollywood’s highest honor stands Halle Berry, who in 2002 grew to become the primary and solely Black lady to win the Academy Award for Finest Actress. Her victory for Monster’s Ball was meant to sign a breakthrough, a door lastly opened. Twenty-three years later, that door stays barely ajar.
“I believed that evening meant issues would change,” Berry says, her voice carrying the burden of a long time of disappointment. “I stood there believing my win would usher in an period the place Black ladies had been recurrently acknowledged for main roles. That didn’t occur.”
Berry’s historic win stays an anomaly in an business the place Black ladies wrestle for recognition in main roles. Since Dorothy Dandridge grew to become the primary Black lady nominated for Finest Actress in 1954, solely 15 Black ladies have acquired nominations, with Berry the only real winner.
“The system isn’t designed for us, and so we now have to cease coveting that which isn’t for us,” Berry displays, recalling her disappointment when, in 2021, neither Andra Day for America vs. Billie Vacation nor Viola Davis for Ma Rainey’s Black Backside took residence the statuette. As an alternative, Frances McDormand received for Nomadland.
The supporting class tells a unique, if nonetheless incomplete, story. Twenty-nine Black ladies have been nominated for Finest Supporting Actress, with 11 winners. The journey started with Hattie McDaniel’s groundbreaking win for Gone with the Wind in 1940.
“They offer us supporting actress awards like they offer out sweet canes,” says Taraji P. Henson, nominated in 2008 for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. “The Academy doesn’t see us as leads.”
Most just lately, Cynthia Erivo earned a Finest Actress nomination in 2024 for Depraved, and Zoe Saldana grew to become the most recent Black lady to win within the supporting class. Their achievements, whereas celebrated, spotlight the persistent disparity.
This sample displays deeper points inside Hollywood’s star-making equipment. Black actresses usually navigate a system the place they’re not often positioned because the romantic lead, the complicated protagonist, or the character whose journey drives the narrative. As an alternative, they’re continuously relegated to roles outlined by trauma, servitude, or supporting others’ tales.
“The reality of the matter is, it’s arduous to get a job,” explains Davis, who received Finest Supporting Actress for Fences.
“You suppose all you should be is the very best actor that you may be and that’s nonetheless not sufficient,” says Whoopi Goldberg.
Goldberg displays on most of the roles that she acquired as a result of a White actor or actress turned down the function. Shelly Lengthy turned down Leaping Jack Flash, Bruce Willis turned down Burglar, Cher turned down Deadly Magnificence, and Bette Midler turned down Sister Act which led to her function in Ghost. Patrick Swayze picked her for the function.
The documentary examines how these ladies have persevered regardless of the constraints, creating extraordinary performances even inside limiting frameworks. It additionally spotlights these working to alter the system — producers, administrators, and executives preventing for genuine illustration.
“I stand on the shoulders of girls who labored so arduous to be seen, and I exist due to them,” says Tessa Thompson. Black ladies are nonetheless preventing to be seen on this business, not simply supporting characters in another person’s story.
Because the documentary reveals, Black ladies’s journey in Hollywood isn’t merely about awards. It’s concerning the basic proper to inform their tales, to be seen as complicated, multidimensional leads able to carrying movies and capturing audiences’ hearts.
Till the day when one other Black lady joins Berry on that unique listing of Finest Actress winners, her solitary statue stays each a triumph and a sobering reminder of how far Hollywood nonetheless has to go.