Halle Berry winning the Oscar in 2002.Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty
Halle Berryis reflecting on how her historic Oscar win didn’t change her career in the way she expected.
The actress, who won the award for Best Actress in 2002 forMonster’s Ball, spoke toEntertainment Weeklyabout her career trajectory while promoting her directorial debut,Bruised.
“It was surprising, because I thought they were going to just back up the truck and drop them off at my house, right?” Berry, 54, said of winning Hollywood’s top prize but never getting an influx of offers.
“When you have a historic win like that, you think, ‘Oh, this is going to fundamentally change,'” she continued. “It did fundamentally change me, but it didn’t change my place in the business overnight. I still had to go back to work. I still had to try to fight to make a way out of no way.”
Steve Granitz/WireImage
Even as a newly-minted Oscar winner in the early 2000s, Berry said she still struggled to land the kind of roles most white actresses with her box office success and an Oscar would have seen. Berry said she took on movie roles that didn’t call to her as much as others.
For more on what Halle Berry says about her place in Hollywood after winning an Oscar and other top stories, listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Now, Berry is making her directorial debut withBruised, in which she also stars as Jackie Justice, a disgraced MMA fighter fighting for one last shot in the ring.
“It used to be when you were 40 your career was done, and I mean really done,” she toldEW. “Or you had to wait until you were old enough to play a grandma, and then you could have another bite at the apple, right? I mean, I couldn’t think that I’d be playing an MMA fighter at 54 years old. Yet I did, so it’s got to be changing. I’m proof of that.”
Bruisedbegins streaming on Netflix on Nov. 24.
source: people.com
