As the only Black woman to have won an Oscar for Leading Actress, Halle Berry urges Black actresses to stop coveting the Academy Awards in the recently released documentary, “Number One on the Call Sheet.”
“The system is not really designed for us, and so we have to stop coveting that which is not for us,” the Catwoman actress says, according to The Guardian. As Berry speaks in Part Two of the two-part documentary film event, which also features award-winning actresses Taraji P. Henson and Whoopi Goldberg, she reminds people that art is fundamentally for touching the lives of other people. It’s been over two decades since Berry won her Oscar in 2002, but she says that years later, the win has forced her to question, “Did it really matter? Did it really change anything for women of color? For my sisters? For our journey?”
Of 15 Black women who have been up for a Leading Actress Oscar, only two have been nominated more than once for the award—Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked” and Viola Davis for “Harriet.” In “Number One on the Call Sheet,” Berry points out her hopes in 2021 that nominees Andra Day and Viola Davis would take home an Oscar. “I felt 100% sure that this was the year one of them was gonna walk away with this award,” she says. “For equally different and beautiful reasons, they both deserved it, and I thought for sure.”
Goldberg, who was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1990 for “Ghost,” also questions the Academy’s choices for leading actress winners. “Wait a minute, none of us were good enough?” she asks. “Nobody? In all of these people, nobody? … What are we missing here? This is a conversation people have every year.” Henson believes the industry fails to see Black women as leads. “They give us supporting [actress awards] like they give out candy canes,” the “Think Like A Man” star says in the documentary. “That just –- I don’t know what to do with that.”
Tune into the voices of groundbreaking Black stars as they share their experiences in Hollywood, from landing life-changing roles to facing some of the lowest moments of their careers.
Part two of “Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Women in Hollywood” is available to stream on Apple TV+. The film was released on March 29, following Part One, “Black Leading Men in Hollywood,” which was released for streaming on March 28.
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