{"id":446462,"date":"2026-02-03T11:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446462\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T11:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T11:44:08","slug":"halle-berry-told-cynthia-erivo-oscars-dont-change-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/446462\/","title":{"rendered":"Halle Berry Told Cynthia Erivo Oscars Don’t Change Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHalle Berry<\/a> recently sat down with The Cut for a profile<\/a> ahead of the release of her new thriller \u201cCrime 101\u201d and revealed that she once advised Cynthia Erivo<\/a> not to place any real weight on winning an Oscar. Erivo has been nominated twice for best actress (\u201cHarriet\u201d and \u201cWicked\u201d), while Berry made history as the first Black woman to win the Oscar for best actress with her performance in \u201cMonster\u2019s Ball.\u201d She remains the only Black winner in the category to this day.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat Oscar didn\u2019t necessarily change the course of my career,\u201d Berry told the publication. \u201cAfter 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, \u2018If 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\u2019s a Black movie. Black movies don\u2019t sell overseas.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAs Erivo\u2019s acting career took off years later with its own Oscar nominations, Berry told her fellow performer: \u201cYou goddamn deserve it, but I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s going to change your life. It cannot be the validation for what you do, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBerry has often spoken out in disappointment over how her historic Oscar win lacked impact for both her own career and the industry at large. She told Marie Claire<\/a> in 2024 that she\u2019s \u201ceternally miffed that no Black woman has come behind me for that best actress Oscar. I\u2019m continually saddened by that year after year. And it\u2019s certainly not because there has been nobody deserving.\u201d In fact, Michelle Yeoh for \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once\u201d is the only other woman of color to win the best actress Oscar.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to\u00a0Variety<\/a>\u00a0in 2020, Berry cited Erivo in \u201cHarriet\u201d and Ruth Negga in \u201cLoving\u201d as Oscar-worthy performances by Black women. She later added Andra Day in \u201cThe United States vs. Billie Holiday\u201d and Viola Davis in \u201cMa Rainey\u2019s Black Bottom\u201d\u00a0to the list. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought there were women that rightfully, arguably, could have, should have. I hoped they would have, but why it hasn\u2019t gone that way, I don\u2019t have the answer,\u201d Berry told Variety at the time, noting her win remained \u201cone of my biggest heartbreaks\u201d as it never opened up a door for more Black women at the Oscars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe morning after, I thought, \u2018Wow, I was chosen to open a door.\u2019 And then, to have no one \u2026 I question, \u2018Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?\u2019\u201d Berry said. \u201cI wanted to believe it was so much bigger than me. It felt so much bigger than me, mainly because I knew others should have been there before me and they weren\u2019t\u2026just because I won an award doesn\u2019t mean that, magically, the next day, there was a place for me. I was just continuing to forge a way out of no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHead over to The Cut\u2019s website<\/a> to read Berry\u2019s latest profile in its entirety. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Halle Berry recently sat down with The Cut for a profile ahead of the release of her new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,106479,88,37584,29506],"class_list":{"0":"post-446462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-cynthia-erivo","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-halle-berry","12":"tag-oscars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}