"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.'"
"Oh, Lupita, we'd like you to play another movie where you're a slave, but this time you're on a slave ship."
Halle Berry won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Monster's Ball and remains the only Black woman to win that category. She says the Oscar did not materially change her career prospects and that film executives continued to view casting a Black woman as a story-altering choice. Directors expressed concerns that casting Black actors would make films 'Black movies' that allegedly do not sell overseas. Berry cautioned Cynthia Erivo not to expect validation from a single award. Lupita Nyong'o reported similar post-win stereotyping and narrowly stereotyped offers.
Read at The Independent
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