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Halle Berry Responds to Backlash for Saying Her Oscar Win ‘Meant Nothing’

She believes the Oscars should be doing more to address diversity.

Halle Berry still isn’t very happy with the Oscars.

Back in 2015, she said that her 2002 Monster’s Ball Oscar win for Best Actress “meant nothing.” Now, she’s explaining how the #OscarsSoWhite movement had her inspired to do more.

“I was profoundly hurt by that and saddened by that and it inspired me to try to get involved in other ways,” she explained to Teen Vogue, “which is why I want to start directing, I want to start producing more [and] I want to start being a part of making more opportunities for people of color.”

In speaking with Entertainment Tonight, the famed actress said her Oscar win did matter, but still believes the Academy needs to do more to recognize diversity.

“Of course it meant something. You saw me up there, I was speechless in a way,” she said. “I feel like it meant something, but I guess I’m just disappointed that there has not been another woman [of color] in 15 years that has stood on that stage like I did that night. That’s just wildly disappointing for me.”

She also says people need to stop complaining about the Oscars and start doing something about its diversity problem.

“I hope that in the next years to come, someone else stands there and that we continue to evolve and grow and that women of color can actually start producing and writing and directing, and not just being the dancing bear, but making opportunities for ourselves,” she said. “The more projects are made for women of color because the more work we have, the better, [and] the more chances we have to be there.”

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