Michael A. Schuman - Halle Berry. A Biography of an Oscar-Winning Actress

A Biography of an Oscar-Winning Actress

Beauty, wealth, an Academy Awardit seems as if Berry has it all. Yet her life has been anything but a fairy tale. She knows the pain of an abusive father and the sting of racism. She has worked hard for every achievementup to and including her Oscarwinning performance in Monsters Ball, which made history, stirred controversy, and launched her into superstardom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Michael A. Schumans work has been published in magazines and newspapers all over the United States. He has written many biographies for Enslow Publishers, Inc., including Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star and Angelina Jolie: Celebrity with Heart.

The air buzzed with anticipation and excitement as Hollywoods finest actors, directors, and more arrived at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 24, 2002. It was the night of the Academy Awards ceremony, the most talked-about event of the year for the motion picture industry. The womens gowns had been crafted by the worlds top designers, and the men looked dapper in their expensive suits. Hundreds of fans waved and cheered as the cream of Hollywood entered the theater.

Among the performers in attendance that night was thirty-five-year-old Halle Berry, who began her career not as an actress but as a model. In fact, some peopleboth movie critics and moviegoers alikebelieved at first that her beauty was the main reason for her success. Berry has said, Frankly, fighting against my looks has become a large part of my career as an actress. I mean, everyone should have such problems, but producers never consider me for anything that isnt glamorous.

Berry had received her first Oscar nomination that year, for best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. Of the hundreds of performers who appear in movies every year, only five men and five women can be named in each category. Although being nominated is an honor, winning an Oscar is the ultimate achievement. Winners are selected by tallying the votes of academy members.

Berry had been nominated for her starring role in the movie Monsters Ball. It is a dark drama about the African-American widow of an executed convicted murderer. She falls in love with a prison guard, later learning that he had been directly involved in executing her husband. Monsters ball is an old English term for a condemned mans last meal.

In Monsters Ball, Berry plays a poor, dowdy waitress. She appears to be wearing no makeup and spends much of the movie in a waitresss uniform. One reason she had wanted the part was that it provided a challenge. At first, the producer Lee Daniels told her, Listen, youre simply not right for this. Youre too beautiful for the role.

Berry refused to take no for an answer. She asked Daniels if he was saying that all poor and troubled people are ugly. She asked him why African Americans had to be stereotyped into certain categories. Daniels, who is also African American, realized that she had a point. Berry wanted so much to be in this movie that she took a pay cut to do so. She had been paid $2.5 million for her previous movie, Swordfish, but accepted $600,000 to take the role in Monsters Ball.

The critics reviews of her performance in Monsters Ball were mostly positive, but the odds of winning the Oscar were not in Berrys favor. For one thing, the film had been produced by a little independent studio called Lions Gate. Huge studios, such as Universal and MGM, advertise in the major movie industry publications, urging academy members to vote for their movies. Lions Gate could not afford such publicity. In addition, the director of Monsters Ball, Marc Forster, was almost unknown in the movie business, with only two other films to his credit.

Finally, there was the race factor. Although Berry is of mixed heritage, most people view her as African American. In the seventy-three years of Academy Awards, no African American had ever been named best lead actress. Two African-American women had won for best supporting actress: Hattie McDaniel, for her role in the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind; and Whoopi Goldberg, for the 1990 movie Ghost. Before 2002, Sidney Poitier, named best lead actor for the 1964 movie Lilies of the Field, had been the only African American to have won the top honor.

Berry nervously awaited the name of the winner in her category. It would be announced near the end of the ceremony. Berrys fellow nominees were all stellar actresses: Sissy Spacek, Rene Zellweger, Nicole Kidman, and Dame Judi Dench. Berry later recalled, I remember sitting in the auditorium and watching clips of Sissy and Rene and Nicole and thinking, Halle, youre nuts to think you could ever win.

Finally, after nearly three hours of presentations, the time came to announce the best actress. Actor Russell Crowe read the list of nominees. And the Oscar goes toCrowe paused dramatically as he opened the envelopeHalle Berry. The camera turned to Berry, who was crying. She looked stunned as she made her way to the stage. Crowe saw how flustered she was and whispered in her ear, Breathe, mate. Just breathe. Its going to be okay.

Berry tried to compose herself, but raw emotions took over. She gave a rambling, tear-filled speech:

Halle Berry had made history.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards ceremony takes place annually in February or March, when the movie industry honors the best work in motion pictures during the previous year.

The presentation of the awards, also called Oscars, is televised live in dozens of countries. Categories include all aspects of the movie industry, with technical awards for lighting and sound technicians as well as artistic awards for the best actors.

Halle Maria Berry was born on August 14, 1966, in Cleveland City Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. Halles father, Jerome Berry, was an orderly who worked in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Cleveland. There he met Judith Hawkins, a psychiatric nurse. Hawkins had been born in Liverpool, England. Her family moved across the Atlantic Ocean to Ohio when she was six.

Berry, a black man, and Hawkins, a white woman, fell in love and married in the 1960s. At that time, interracial couples were not accepted by much of American society. In some states, interracial marriages were illegal. Although Jerome and Judith Berry were not breaking any laws in Ohio, they still faced difficulties as a mixed-race couple.

The Berrys first daughter, Heidi, was born in 1964. Then Judith became pregnant with Halle. One day, she happened to be shopping at a downtown Cleveland department store called Halle Brothers. Looking at the stores shopping bags, she decided that she really liked the name Halle. So the new baby was named after a department store.