Posted on 05/22/2006 8:01:53 PM PDT by pissant
With an Oscar in the bag, it is hard to imagine Halle Berry would have to fight too hard for acting roles.
But the Hollywood A-lister says she has to audition for parts like every other actor.
"I have to fight for almost every job I ever get ... the ones that I really want to do," said Berry in Cannes, promoting her latest film, X-Men: The Last Stand.
"I am not complaining but there is a little thing called racism that this movie X-Men speaks about that, honestly, people like me still suffer from on some level.
Berry explained that if she were to audition for the role of a middle-class, middle-aged mother, producers may assume her husband would also have to be African American.
Her children would also have to be black, which she said some producers would fear may change the dynamics of the story.
"I am not implying that Hollywood is racist, but racism is so subtle that people sometimes won't even realise," she said.
"I still face that; I still struggle with that in Hollywood today."
Berry was in the French Riviera this week for the Cannes International Film Festival, with the third X-Men instalment screening out of competition.
Her character, Storm, again joins forces with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), and Rogue (Anna Paquin).
The film, based on the classic Marvel comic series, sees the super-heroes going up against the government and bad-guy Magneto (Ian McKellen) over the introduction of a "cure" for those with special powers, or mutants as they are referred to in the movie.
"As a woman first, and of colour, too, I have been discriminated against for both; I feel very attached to this material," said Berry.
"What would happen if our government in America tried to impose an antidote to change black people to white? That would be horrible, and I would be afraid of what that would mean for all mankind.
Berry said she felt extremely passionate about the films message.
"I struggled to fit in my whole life, to find acceptance, and it was only as I got into my late 30s that I finally started to realise, who cares?
"I don't have to try to be accepted. I have to try to get people to have more tolerance and accept me as I am. I am not the one that needs to change."
The X-Men comics have an extremely strong fan base around the world.
While critics at Cannes this year have given the movie lukewarm reviews, Berry says the fans were the harshest of critics and, ultimately, the most important.
This is what I love about Keanu. He never whines about being half-Asian.
She's a liberal. No thought in her head makes sense.
Never saw it. Seeing her nekkid is not enough motivation for me to see her for two hours on the tube.
As I said, it was an otherwise terrible flick.
Man. I love the Bond flicks of yesteryear. The chick in From Russia with Love, Ursula Andress in Dr. No, Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. Sorry, neither Denise nor Hallebop measure up! Then again, Sean is still the only great Bond.
LOL. I had no idea he was.
I guess nowadays you can fast forward to, and pause on, the good parts.
Who could possibly compare with the All-Time Bond woman, Pussy Galore????
If being a Black woman is so bad why does identify herself as being one? Maybe she is a masochist.
That's because he never whines about it! Imagine "I got cast as Neo because the world thinks Asians are all computer geeks or kung-fu masters. It's so unfair!!" Never. Never would he do that.
Halle was raised by her blue eyed blonde caucasian MOTHER...and desperately needs to be in the limelight.
Well, I hope not. I never complain about being part mexican when people complain after I've had too many Tecates. ;o)
Halle, sweetheart, you got an oscar because of your preferred racial identity. It was the same reason Denzel Washington won (although his oscar was deserved). Hollywood proved they weren't racist, and now they can go back to ignoring you again.
Yep, the lesbian kiss is next to keep her name in the spotlight.
It's not hard to imagine. She's not that good an actress.
She must not be. I've only seen her in a Bond flick and she was awful.
Keanu is half Asian?! Whoa!
That's Honor Blackman, I think, not Diana Rigg. I'm old enough to know the difference. ;-)
I know the diff also. I was throwing Rummyfan a bone
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