-Tamara’Shanay-

Cousins!

In a recent interview for ABC’s Screen Queens Rising, legendary actress Halle Berry expressed her distraught over the lack of diversity for Best Actress at the Oscars.

Halle made history in 2002 winning Best Actress at the Oscars for her performance in the Monsters Ball (2001). Two decades later, there has not been a Black Woman who has won the category yet, and it leaves Halle Berry “completely heartbroken.” 

According to Yahoo! News, Halle expected more Black women to follow in her footsteps. “I do feel completely heartbroken that there’s no other woman standing next to me in 20 years.” she adds, “I thought, like everybody else, that night meant a lot of things would change.” 

“That there would be other women. I thought I would have the script truck back up to my front door, and I’d have an opportunity to play any role I wanted. That didn’t happen. No other woman is standing there.”

There’s no secret that the Oscars has faced many accusations of discrimination against actors of color. In 2016, the hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, was trending after no Black actors received any nominations within the four main acting categories two years in a row.

In 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences placed new standards for the Best Picture category. In an attempt to improve minority representation. 

The “Bruised” actress expresses dismay that neither “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” star Viola Davis nor Andra Day, who played the lead role in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” took home the best actress award at last year’s Oscars ceremony. Instead, Frances McDormand won Best Actress for “Nomadland.”

“I think we have to start to change our perspective because it’s clear that we may not change how the awards are handed out,” Halle said.

“But in lieu of changing that, what can we change? We can change our participation within the industry,” she said. “We can change how hard we fight to tell our stories, the scripts we write.”

I agree with Halle on this one. I honestly can’t believe it’s been 20 years– yet, there has not been one Black Woman to win the award after her. This probably explains why the ratings have been decreasing in recent years because of the lack of diversity. Let’s hope it changes. But if it’s been 20 years, will it ever change?