Halle Berry drops bombshell ahead of Oscars 2026

With Oscars 2026 approaching, Halle Berry’s reflection on her historic win pops up in mind

Halle Berry reminding audiences that even the most glittering Oscar moment doesn’t always rewrite a career.

Berry, who made history in 2002 as the first, and still only, Black woman to win Best Actress for Monster’s Ball, revealed that her triumph didn’t deliver the flood of opportunities she expected.

“That Oscar didn’t necessarily change the course of my career,” she said in an interview with The Cut.

“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.’”

Berry also revealed the advice she gave Cynthia Erivo, who has been nominated twice for Best Actress for Harriet and Wicked.

“You goddamn deserve it, but I don’t know that it’s going to change your life,” Berry recalled telling her. “It cannot be the validation for what you do, right?”

Despite decades of progress, Berry remains the lone Black woman to hold the Best Actress trophy.

In 2024, she admitted to Marie Claire that she was “eternally miffed” no one has followed her, despite many deserving performances.

Berry isn’t the only one with such views about the prestigious accolade.

Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as well as Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) are also other Oscar winners who say the golden statue didn’t guarantee career longevity.

Leo said her 2011 win hurt her career, while Harden once described her Supporting Actress Oscar as “disastrous on a professional level.”