'It's heartbreaking': Oscar winner Halle Berry speaks out on lack of diversity at this year's Academy Awards
She is the first black woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress.
And Halle Berry broke her silence on the issue of diversity at this year's Academy Awards during an appearance at the 2016 Makers Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Tuesday.
The 49-year-old said it was heartbreaking to see that despite her landmark achievement in 2002, for her role in Monster's Ball, things have really not changed.
Speaking her mind: Halle Berry broke her silence on the issue of diversity at this year's Academy Awards during an appearance at the 2016 Makers Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Tuesday
'Honestly, that win almost 15 years ago was iconic,' Berry said at the conference, according to Deadline,.
'It was important to me, but I had the knowing in the moment that it was bigger than me.
'I believed that in that moment, that when I said, "The door tonight has been opened," I believed that with every bone in my body, that this was going to incite change because this door, this barrier, had been broken.'
Oscar winner: The 49-year-old said it was heartbreaking to see that despite her landmark achievement in 2002, for her role in Monster's Ball, things have really not changed (pictured with Kevin Huvane)
'It was important to me, but I had the knowing in the moment that it was bigger than me,' said of her win from 14 years ago
But not much has changed in the nearly decade and half since her win, as the actress reflected: 'And to sit here almost 15 years late and knowing that another woman of color has not walked through that door'
Berry was referencing her emotional Oscars speech from 14 years before, where she said: 'This moment is so much bigger than me.
'This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It's for the women that stand beside me - Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it's for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.'
But not much has changed in the nearly decade and half since her win, as the actress reflected: 'And to sit here almost 15 years late and knowing that another woman of color has not walked through that door, is heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking, because I thought that moment was bigger than me.
The door closed: 'It's heartbreaking, because I thought that moment was bigger than me,' Berry admitted
'It's heartbreaking to start to think maybe it wasn't bigger than me. Maybe it wasn't. And I so desperately felt like it was.'
'Our cities are filled with black and brown people. And many times, unfortunately we see films that are set in Chicago, New York, Atlanta - big metropolitan cities - and they're devoid of people of color,' she said according to AP.
'So I feel like when we really live up to our responsibility and challenge ourselves to be truthful, and tell the truth in our storytelling, then people of color will be there in a real competitive way, and it won't be about inclusion or diversity. Because if we're telling the truth, inclusion and diversity will be a byproduct of the truth.'
A moment to remember: Berry took home the Oscar for Best Actress in 2002 for Monster's Ball
Proud: The actress seen here posing with her Oscar after winning big
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3429144/Halle-Berry-speaks-diversity-year-s-Academy-Awards.html#ixzz3z3erX75N
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