Actress Halle Berry made way for diversity in Hollywood when she won an Oscar in 2001 but there has been little progress since. Photo / Getty
Halle Berry thought she paved the way for diversity at the 2001 Academy Awards.
The Extant star triumphed in the Oscars that year, taking home the Best Actress gong for her role in Monsters Ball, and believed it would "open doors" for actors and actresses from diverse backgrounds.
Speaking about
the controversy surrounding this year's ceremony because of the lack of black actors nominated in any of the categories, she said: "I believed that in that moment, that when I said [in my acceptance speech], '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.
"And to sit here almost 15 years later, and knowing that another woman of colour has not walked through that door, is heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking because I thought that moment was bigger than me. 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."
The 49-year-old actress also insisted actors and filmmakers have a "responsibility" to look at the wider picture and not forget the "importance and the involvement" of people from all races and backgrounds in making history and being a part of American culture today.
