We Shall Over-Come.
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.
"Yes, at long last, the "glass ceiling" had been broken. Large-breasted, slightly cocoa women with idealized Caucasian features finally have a chance in Hollywood!"
Maybe that's because she's a lousy actress, her Oscar notwithstanding.
She ruined a James Bond movie, IMO. Only Denise Richards has managed that before her.
ohfercryinoutloud
Are ya decrying the lack of pictures, or her statements?
Does she think white actresses don't have to audition?
Really. Why does she think they have "casting couches"?
We Shall Over-Come.
I agree. She was as out of place in DIE ANOTHER DAY as mayonnaise with Fruit Loops!
Yes.
Both David Justice and another husband also got fed up with her act. As beautiful as she is, what does that tell you?
My friend who went to high school with Ms. Berry claims that the actress NEVER identified herself with african americans back then. Berry was raised by her white mother.
You in line for "sensitivity" training?
Yup. Her mom who raised her, is white, and her black dad took off on her. But she identifies as a black woman. that doesn't make sense.
I'd rather eat that than sit thru that stink-bomb again.
As the bumper sticker says: "No matter how hot she looks, some guy has to put up with her s***."
It gives her automatic victimhood status.
The acme of her career was her topless scene in SWORDFISH, an otherwise terrible flick.
"She ruined a James Bond movie, IMO. Only Denise Richards has managed that before her."
Tut, tut, tut... Denise was a major babe and no worse an actress than most of the Bond bimbos. Halle Berry is likewise a great-looking semi-decent actress. I think what's been ruining Bond movies are their ever-more absurd yet repetitive plots.
If she wants to argue about bias in H-wood, let's talk about the bias against introverted ugly people in the movie business.
Or, better yet, against conservative writing and themes.
Yup!
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