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.
I believe Ms. Berry is half white herself.
Half wit as well.
Don't she kick this dog everytime she gets an award of some type?
Seems like I remember this coming from her several times in the last few years. ut its always after some award ceremony.
maybe its a reverse mind-warp thing...
That's a great line! LOL.
I remember watching Halle interviewed on Arsenio Hall many years ago, and back then she said it was hard growing up biracial - not African-American. Her quotes above suggest the same thing - not fitting in, etc. - but the article didn't make that very clear.
I'm still laughing over that line... lol.
I think this is the only comment she made in the entire article I agree with.
Not in liberal Hollywood surely.
Age discrimination--
She does this whenever she's plugging one of her movies- as if she is the only black actress in the world.
She looks black, not white. If you didn't know who her parents were, just seeing her on the street would you assume she was black or white?
Try being a Twa (pygmy) in certain portions of Africa, and you will see what REAL oppression is, Halle.
Well, in my neighborhood, she would be seen as Puerto Rican or Dominican at first glance.
Or does the "one drop rule" not apply to folks with a name like "Sanchez" to folks like you LWalk? Its a dumb rule followed only by racist blacks and old fart whites.
My half-sister is lighter than Halle, and she has two black parents. My stepmother is even lighter, and they have no recent white ancestors. I don't believe in the one-drop rule, but perception=reality. Keanu, mentioned in this thread, is considered white, mostly because he looks white. You saw several posters surprised to learn that he is half-Asian. Who here is surprised to learn that Halle is half-black?
I suppose I'm in the minority, but I don't find her particularly attractive. She has a weird-looking head and hair that does nothing for me. Her attitude stinks, obviously, and that counts for something, as in, no thanks, baby. Any millionaire that whines about racism loses my interest real fast in any event.
Again, it depends on where you are raised. Where I come from, we have alot of folks from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Brazil that look alot like Halle (although rarely as attractive, at least in NY/NJ). Lots of race mixing down in those places, yet such folks are not considered black up here.
With "black" you get extra bennies.
Cry me a river!
She's one the most beautiful women in Hollywood worth millions...yeah, she really "suffers."
Halle, you've got the 'First African American Woman' Oscar win , now shut up--you twit.
Oh, so having to audition is now racism? ....as if white "A-listers" never have to do so?
Yet another self-absorbed victocrat.
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