Halle Berry Says She is ‘Completely Heartbroken’ No Other Black Woman Has Won a Best Actress Oscar Since Her Win 20 Years Ago

Halle Berry hopes her history-making Oscar win inspired other artists.

The Moonfall actress, 55, became the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress on March 24, 2002, for her performance in Monster’s Ball. Since then, no other Black woman has won in that category, which is disappointing to Berry.

“You know, I’ve been asked this question so many times as if I should have the answer. But I don’t,” she said in ABC’s Soul of a Nation Presents: Screen Queens Rising special when asked her thoughts on whether doors were opened after the landmark win. “But I will say this: I do feel completely heartbroken that there’s no other woman standing next to me in 20 years.”

“True, I thought, like everybody else, that night meant a lot of things would change, that there would be other women. I thought that I would have the script truck back up to my front door and I’d have an opportunity to play any role I wanted. That didn’t happen,” the Bruised actress/director added. “But what I do know happened that night is that so many people of color got inspired.”

She continued, “When I look around and I see my brothers and sisters working and thriving and telling their own stories from their point of view. I’m proud of that, and I see the movement forward. And I think that night inspired so many of those people to dream those dreams.”

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SOURCE: PEOPLE, Benjamin VanHoose