I consider myself a real film buff. I watch everything.
Still, I can’t recollect a black actress who would deserve an Oscar for Best Actress before this. Ever. Angela Bassett? Yeah, ok.
Halle’s display was embarassing. Like she’s a trailblazer? No. The only reason I will ever remember Halle Berry is because she has the nicest set of naked real boobs I’ve ever seen in a movie. SWORDFISH, for those of you uninitiated.
Is it just me, or did she make that speech more for her own egotistical self than for the advancement of her “oppressed” race?
Anyway, did you see The Color Purple? Carmen Jones? Porgy and Bess? The Josephine Baker Story? Claudine - where Diahann Carroll was the second black woman nominated for best actress by the academy?
I could go on, but your post makes it sound as if you just want to be inflammatory. Please educate yourself before saying anything else so stupid.
Actually, I’ve always been pleasantly surprised by Ms Berry’s acting ability, when I can concentrate on it. I haven’t seen the film for which she was nominated, but she has the talent to win.
She was overwhelmed. As the First African American Women Ever To Win The Best Actress Oscar, I guess she had every right to be - this was a win that put her in the history books.
It would have been so disappointing if she’d been a cold fish about this win. It’s something special to be the first - no one can ever beat you.
That’s not an easy list to compile at all. None I can think of are household names, but there are two guys whose faces are more-or-less recognizable.
B.D. Wong’s most memorable movie roles have been in Father of the Bride (1991) and Seven Years in Tibet. B.D. Wong also appears on HBO’s OZ as a priest – but I have never seen the show. Others can surely elaborate.
Gedde Watanabe made a memorable debut as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles. His work in the movie Gung Ho is also familar to movie-goers, even if his name is not.
I think B.D. Wong especially is capable of a strong, leading, Oscar-worthy role. I guess the right script has never crossed his desk.
Still, the Asian-actor Oscar barrier has been at least partially broken – the late Haing S. Ngor won Best Supporting actor in 1984.
There’s some validity to this, but why Asian-American? The Hong Kong actor Tony Leung (the one from Wong Kar-Wai’s Happy Together and In the Mood for Love is as good a screen actor as any working today. And as far as I know, he’s made only rare forays into the martial-arts genre, and even then mostly only in costume.
Jokes aside, I’m not quite where I stand in regards to the topic - maybe Halle’s win might have been a bit more meaningful had another african american NOT won the male lead (and I’m not saying that Denzel’s a bad actor), but to have Denzel, Halle and Sidney Poiter recieve an Oscar all on the same night seems to reek of something. I’m not saying they didn’t deserve it, but it almost seems a bit not right.
I do, however, think Denzel certainly deserved it, he’s a fine actor regardless of colour, etc, and he certainly was more gracious in receiving it.
Halle Berry was much more watchable than the awful Gwynneth.
At least Halle had a reason to cry.
I agree with **Heloïse ** It’s far too late to give an oscar now. So many more women deserved one. [still can’t understand the oscar-less “Color Purple”. Though a bit sentimental, very fine women roles there.]
All I know about Halle Berry I’ve learned on “Entertainment Tonight” and/or the E! channel, and I didn’t watch the Oscars because I hate award shows in general, but she seems like the sort of emotional person that gets “weepy” rather easily. That being the case, I’m inclined to cut her some slack.
