Great Acceptance Speeches: Halle Berry, "Monster's Ball"
Friday, February 22, 2019 at 10:00AM We asked Team Experience to share their favourite Oscar acceptance speeches as we countdown to Hollywood's High Holy Night. Here's Chris Feil...
Would that all Best Actress years be as stacked and competitive as 2001. All major precursors had gone to a different performance (with Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones as a wildcard fifth nominee): BAFTA to Judi Dench, Globes for Nicole Kidman and Sissy Spacek, and SAG going to Halle Berry. But it would be the latter that would yield our ultimate momentous winner for her work in Monster’s Ball. It already felt like a showdown before her name was called, and this win would be the real event.
Berry was the first woman of color to win for a leading performance, and infuriatingly remains the only one. But you can see the passion in the room to overturn that embarrassingly legacy, the audience leaping to their feet as a stunned Berry initially collapsed into her seat. Denzel Washington would also win on a night that also saw a lifetime achievement prize given to Sidney Poitier - it’s a ceremony whose impact the Academy should consider chasing rather than pat itself on the back for...
For almost a full minute Berry wept on the stage in shocked gratitude, the kind of emotion that gives us the moment we crave from an Oscar speech but with an all-too-rare gravity of importance. Sadly things haven’t actually changed much, so this moment still feels raw and overwhelming watching it twenty years later. Her silent tears are more memorable than most winners’ entire speeches.
Once she found the words, the speech itself was as beautiful. A common complaint against lengthy boring Oscar speeches is how many become a litany of names. Berry’s speech instead did so with moving impact, naming several Black actresses that had come before her and fought alongside her to further opportunities; some Oscar nominated, some not. All of them worthy of more chances for moments like Berry was having as she held her Oscar.
Berry also deserves kudos for managing to make the business side of her list of names (manager, agent, lawyer, etc.) feel more personal and charming than the norm. And delivers a closer of famous names both genuinely felt and surprising - her first director Spike Lee and mentor Warren Beatty. It’s an ace speech even without the weight of history defied.
Reader Comments (31)
Haven't had a male POC win best actor since Forrest Whitaker either. Even though Mahershala Ali is going to take another supporting trophy for a lead performance. Houston, we have a problem.
There's a really excellent new video on Be Kind Rewind's You Tube channel on this very subject, #OscarsSoWhite & The Legacy of Halle Berry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEberAZhZy4
Can't stand the weepy hysterical speeches (see also: Paltrow, which she also cringes at now).
My fave speech is Frances McDormand's win for Fargo. Swaggered up to the stage with no tears, made it funny, thoughtful, sweet, and brief.
Also loved Cher & Ingrid Bergman's speeches where they used the time to praise another nominee.
That dress is still a knockout. And I can’t blame Halle Berry for being hysterical seconds after shattering a glass ceiling, especially considering how she then decided to use that time. And considering we’ve gone another 20 (!) years without any woman of color getting to hold a Best Actress Oscar. The struggle is most definitely real.
blah.
Nicole Kidman should've won this for MOULIN ROUGE!
and the first woman of color winner should'be been Angela Bassett in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT... Sorry Holly Hunter. ;-)
@Bruno
Best Actor category isn't the no-win situation of Best Actress for racial inclusion with respect to nods and multiple wins.
@DAVID
100% agreed!
I love that Renee got nominated for Bridget Jones. But, yes, this was QUITE a line-up, and I remember it being close between Berry and Spacek. I just watched the Be Kind Rewind video, too, and they point out a LOT of interesting things. We weren't talking about race because 9/11 just happened. Many of Berry's roles weren't written for black actresses. I remember when she was on Oprah promoting "Things We Lost in the Fire" and said execs didn't want David Duchovny to play her husband because they wouldn't know what the kids would look like. "They'd look like ME!" she cried in exasperation.
Thirding the Be Kind Rewind series on YouTube. It has filled the gap for me that Nick Davis' Best Actress roundup previously occupied. Go subscribe so that she makes more! Maybe this site and her can collaborate because the creator is a bonafide actressexual, with a better than usual grasp on racial dynamics that complicate matters in this category. I hope she does the Dorothy Dandridge one soon!
@/3rtful: True it's not in as dire straits of a situation, but I'm concerned it's been 13 years now. Taking Best Actor & Best Actress together, it's not good. Doesn't seem to be a problem in the supporting categories, unsurprisingly.
This is one of the few times in recent Oscars history that an actress who didn't win a Globe won the Oscar. McDormand is another example. I think this was due to the race being so so tight between 2 dramatic performances Berry vs. Spacek, and a number of other factors such as Spacek already having won before and the historical significance of Berry.
The issue remains a casting problem. When Hollywood decides to cast women (and men) of color in roles where race is ambiguous, then more recognition will come.
Intentional measures to increase diversity in film might have resulted in Gone Girl starring Lupita N'yongo. Tessa Thompson in Room. Arrival starring Kerry Washington. Michelle Rodriguez is The Girl on the Train. As much as I admire the actresses and their performances in these films, there is no reason to think a POC could not have performed as well, and that the box office would not have been as strong or stronger.
Sawyer - you hit the nail on the head. In addition, the failure of studios to run with Best Actress contenders of colour compounds the issue. Look at Hidden Figures - Taraji P Henson with a real campaign would have been a big contender for the win (probably at Ruth Negga's expense but still). Instead, the movie's acting nominations rested on Octavia Spencer's prestige reputation.
Deserving or not (Ruth Negga, Sasha Lane and Viola Davis are all above her on my own list), it would have been an easy get.
Halle Berry sits second behind Sissy Spacek for me, but I could never argue with such an important (and sadly not yet repeated) win.
I loved In the Bedroom but that is Tom Wilkinson's movie all the way. Spacek is terrific but she is borderline Supporting. Berry so deserved her Oscar. Please rewatch Monster's Ball if you do not agree. Her drunk scene with Billy Bob is fantastic.
Bruno-
Another examples is 1995. Sharon Stone won the Globe for CASINO, but then Susan Sarandon won the Oscar for Dead Man Walking.
Michael R - I think that In The Bedroom is absolutely about both Tom and Sissy (and their grief) so she's 100% Leading.
My own ballot -
Isabelle Huppert - La Pianiste
Naomi Watts - Mulholland Dr
Sissy Spacek - In The Bedroom
Thora Birch - Ghost World
Nicole Kidman - The Others
Maribel Verdu, Halle Berry and Audrey Tautou are my runners-up in a competitive year (though aren't they all really?)
I nominate Halle Berry in Supporting for Boomerang in 1992 and love that she won in 2001.
In unrelated news, Moulin Rouge (and Nicole Kidman in it) leave me completely cold.
I nominate Halle Berry in Supporting for Boomerang in 1992
Grace Jones was the supporting actress standout of the ensemble.
Bruno - Indeed it's only happened five times in the last 40 years (K. Hepburn for "On Golden Pond", Page, Sarandon, McDormand for "Fargo" and Berry).
Here Here 3rtful,Grace is in another zone on that film.
Though she has iffy moments as do some BA winners but I can't begrudge her the win though my hearts with Sissy smashing plates,She is better in the 2nd part of the film where she really gets hold of Leticia and her silent look at the end is a gr8 bit of acting.
@DAVID: IIRC Sarandon had a bigtime overdue storyline going on by 1995. It's funny, because I thought Sean Penn really deserved it more than she did that year.
@Paul: So Berry over Spacek is indeed the last time it happened...and that was 17 years ago! If anything, I think the Globes have become more powerful at predicting (or dictating) Oscar winners.
Add me to the list of people who've become a recent fan of the Be Kind Rewind YouTube channel. Her content is truly illuminating.
I was a 21-year-old acting student when Berry and Washington won their historic awards, and as a black kid who only could aspire to be where they were, I was completely taken in and totally inspired by her speech. I watched it so much on VHS that I still can recite the beginning.
It's also refreshing to see so many comments supportive of her win because I distinctly recall a time when that was not the sentiment in a lot of online film circles.
kermit and /3rtful, I have this argument with myself often regarding whether Jones or Berry would be among my supporting actress nominees for 1992. In one corner there's the former giving us a balls-to-the-wall, stylized, larger-than-life yet sill believable CHARACTER, while the latter has the tricky task of playing conservative side of the virgin/whore dichotomy yet finding the layers that take her from (stereo/arche)type to fleshed-out person with her own arc.
A few things.....HALLE is such a stunning woman, she's one of the most gorgeous actresses around , too bad her career went downhill after Monster's Ball, given the right material and director she shines ( Things We Lost in the Fire, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Frankie & Alice) but she'd undoubtedly had much more misfires than hits; anyway that Oscar rightfully belongs to her , Spacek and Kidman being close second.
kermit_the_frog-
Agree 100%, Huppert and Watts should've been there. Two performances for the ages.
DAVID-
Sharon deserved that Oscar for Casino, another much talked about performance, Sarandon was actually my number 4 in 1996 ( behind Stone, Shue and Streep); had Sarandon won in 1994 , which she deserved way more, Sharon would've been an Oscar winner.
About the speeches....please, let's talk about Viola Davis classy, heartfelt and genuine one; the effervescent Julia Roberts; Sandra Bullock giving one of the best speeches ever, she kills it; and the "I deserve this. Thank you." Shirley MacLaine speech.
Why Kimberly Elise wasn't even nominated for her work in 'For Colored Girls' is something that still bothers me close to ten years later. Easily one of the best performances of this decade, and regardless what one thought of the final product itself, her ferocity and carefully modulated voice work was something marvelous to behold.
Just as Sawyer so exquisitely stated, had she received the kinds of leading roles that go more often than not to white women rather than POC, she'd have easily bagged a whole truckful of awards by this point.
Rosamund Pike, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt and Brie Larson were all sublime in those aforementioned roles, but (much as I loved their work) did any of them leave such an imprint on their characters that it makes it almost impossible for me to consider another actress in that role? No.
TBH I actually didn't like this speech much - though I totally get her emotion. But she overstayed her welcome to thank her lawyers, etc. and became tiresome.
and the first woman of color winner should'be been Angela Bassett in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT... Sorry Holly Hunter. ;-)
I would have said Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple.
@Rob
She's the lone exception in an assembly line of perpetual whiteness. Her expression of the weightiness of her win is better than all the Viola Davis acceptance speeches combined.
i prefer a witty speech
Gaby Sidibe should've won over Sandy, and then we wouldn't have only Halle.
The 1st woman of colour winner shld've been Whoopi. Period. I view her supp win for Ghosts as a somewhat make-up award (not unlike Viola's)
IMO, Bassett oso deserves a win over Hunter, but too bad Hunter was on a steamroll in 1993.
IMO, Halle won bcos of a few factors:
1) its a 3-way race, w Spacek already won before & Kidman nominated for the wrong role.
2) Berry was (& still is) a glamour gal and her "de-glam" transformation in Monster's Ball is a move tt alws goes down well w voters (Check Kidman & Theron's wins right after her)
3) her SAG win seals the deal for her. I'd thot Spacek will take this but Berry overtaken her at the very last leg.
My 1992 winner in Supporting is Robin Givens - what a revelatory performance! Grace makes my Top 10.
Par - if you prefer a witty speech, I'd like to direct you to Halle Berry's second historic Best Actress win (at the Golden Raspberrys)...