Halle Berry says it’s ‘heartbreaking’ that she is the ONLY black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar

Halle Berry is opening up about the fact that to this day, she remains the only actress of color to have ever won a Best Lead Actress Oscar.

The Introducing Dorothy Dandridge star, 54, opened up to the Mirror on Saturday, expressing her ‘heartbreak’ over the fact that her victory in 2002 for the brilliant film Monster’s Ball remains the only such win for a black actress.

‘The heartbreak I have is because I really thought that night meant that very soon after that, other women of color, black women, would stand beside me,’ she said.

‘Now it’s been 20 years and no one has, and so every time Oscar time comes around, I get very reflective and I think, “Well maybe this year, maybe this year.”

‘It has become heartbreaking that no one else has stood there,’ the X-Men actress added. 

Berry won her Academy Award for her searing performance as the ill-fated Leticia Musgrove in 2001’s Monster’s Ball, opposite Billy Bob Thornton. 

The entire film hinged on her portrayal of an impoverished and put-upon mother and widow, up until the very last frame.

While Halle broke the record for being the first and (so far) only actress of color to clinch the Best Lead Actress Academy Award, the Supporting Actress category has been somewhat more inclusive in that regard.

Whoopi Goldberg won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 1990 film Ghost, becoming the first female black performer to do so since Hattie McDaniel’s win for 1939‘s Gone With The Wind.

And while several other actresses of color have since won that same award, including Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, the argument could be made that relegating black actresses to continually win only for supporting roles keeps minority actresses firmly planted in that supporting category – with little room for forward progression.

‘Arguably there could have been other women who deserve to have been there [winning a Best Lead Actress Oscar] that haven’t been there and I would have hoped that in 20 years, there would have been others that would be beside me,’ Halle reflected, thinking back on her win.

At the time of her victory in March 2002, a shocked and elated Halle exclaimed during her acceptance speech, ‘This moment is so much bigger than me. This award is for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.’

Now, almost 20 years later, the former Bond girl is disappointed more has not changed.

‘That moment mattered because so many people have come up to me over the years and told me how that moment shifted their thinking about what they could achieve, what they aspire to do or what they believed they could do,’ she said over the weekend. 

‘That they were touched by that moment. That is the value that I know is real.’ 

The Oscars have long battled accusations of racist and sexist tendencies, with recent hashtag campaigns such as #OscarsSoWhite, but the issues go much further back.

Another Whoopi Goldberg film, 1985’s The Color Purple directed by Steven Spielberg, was nominated for a whopping 11 Academy Awards… and failed to claim even one of the statuettes an Oscar night.

Black actors have fared slightly better over the years, with performers such as Denzel Washington even nabbing two Oscars. 

But comparatively, both actors and actresses of color have been favored far less than their Caucasian counterparts.

This year, Berry will be debuting her first directorial feature effort, the Netflix film Bruised.

She also stars in the film, in which she portrays a washed-up cage fighter, and feels encouraged by the fact that she was able to put the movie together.   

‘I’m inspired to see so many women of color writing, producing, directing, telling our own stories from our own guise, our own lands, daring to do so.

‘And I’m also inspired by those who aren’t of color who are supporting those of color and helping them realize these opportunities and supporting them along the way,’ she added. ‘So it’s starting to feel better.’