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Out of all of the live-action Catwoman actresses, Halle Berry made history by being the first Black actress to embody the DC role on the big screen. Unfortunately, the 2004 superhero movie Catwoman experienced mediocre reviews, performed poorly at the box office, and received seven Razzie Awards. Berry also received the Razzie for Worst Actress for her performance in it, and she recently explained the story behind developing her kickass acceptance speech saying, “I shit on it because they shit on it.”
With the Razzie Awards sending out awards to what they perceive as the worst movies and performances of the year, it takes a strong actress to accept that award with gusto. Halle Berry was one of them as she still pokes fun at her Razzie win for Catwoman. However, the Bruised actress told EW why it was important for her to accept it with humor and triumph compared to defeat:
I didn’t love [the backlash]. Being a Black woman, I’m used to carrying negativity on my back, fighting, being a fish swimming upstream by myself. I’m used to defying stereotypes and making a way out of no way. I didn’t want to be casual about it, but I went and collected that Razzie, laughed at myself, and kept it moving. It didn’t derail me because I’ve fought as a Black woman my whole life. A little bad publicity about a movie? I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t going to stop my world or derail me from doing what I love to do.
Halle Berry has accomplished a lot of victorious firsts for the African-American community. Before becoming an actress, she was the first African-American Miss World contestant in 1986 and finished in sixth. After gaining worldwide recognition as an actress in roles like Storm in the X-Men movies and a henchwoman in Swordfish, Berry starred in Monster’s Ball where she became the first (and only) Black woman to win an Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards. Catwoman may not have been the American actress’s best movie, but it had no reflection of the success she’d achieve later in her acting career.
The iconic way that Halle Berry accepted her Worst Actress Razzies Award was going onstage thanking Warner Bros. for putting her “in a piece of shit, god-awful movie” and her manager for convincing her to do projects “even when he knows they’re shit.” Even though during her speech it seemed like Berry was admitting she hated her own movie, the Cloud Atlas star came clean that she had to react that way to fight back against haters of the movie:
The studio knew what I was going to do at the Razzies. I told them I wanted to take the piss out of it and laugh at it. I don’t think it’s a God-awful film, but I was at the Razzies, so I had to do what they do; I shit on it because they shit on it! I wrote [that speech] within an inch of my life. I put a lot of thought into how I could do it in a fun way and let everyone know I didn’t take it that seriously. You can never take away my Oscar, no matter how bad you bash me! If you say I earned it, I’ll take this, too.
It’s truly inspiring of Berry not to let one Razzie Award affect the way she sees her acting career or Catwoman in general. Sure, the Golden Globe winner has her complaints about the DC Comics-based film saying she thought Catwoman “felt a bit soft” in saving women from using a corrupt face cream. In fact, the biggest change she’d make out of the panned film if she could direct it would be to have the anti-hero save the world like male superheroes do.
When you think about it, Catwoman still broke barriers ahead of its time for the Black community and women in the world of superheroes. Back in 2021, Berry called out Catwoman haters saying she still has people coming to her saying they love her movie and felt special seeing her don the iconic costume.
While Halle Berry continued to talk about how Catwoman’s failure worked against her as a woman of color, that movie was only a small part of her story:
Growing up as a Black woman, that’s two strikes against you. There’s an innate resilience. I hated that it got all put on me, and I hate that, to this day, it’s my failure. I know I can carry it. I still have a career 20 years later. It’s just part of my story. That’s okay, and I’ve carried other failures and successes. People have opinions, and sometimes they’re louder than others. You just have to keep moving.
Success followed Halle Berry after Catwoman with her next film project being the ABC television film Their Eyes Were Watching God where she earned an Emmy nomination. Then came the independent drama Frankie and Alice where she earned the African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe nomination. She also made her directorial debut with Bruised which went #1 on Netflix back in 2021, and she has two movies premiering this year. Catwoman may have been a career setback, but in no way did it stop her from continuing to shine in her projects.
Halle Berry developed her Razzies speech for Catwoman saying “I shit on it because they shit on it.” Through her humorous acceptance of her award for Worst Actress, Berry reflected on the backlash she received for her performance and went against it by showing audiences that she’s not letting this award reflect a career she’s flourished in since 1989.
Make sure to watch Halle Berry’s 2024 Netflix release The Union with a Netflix subscription on August 16th. You can also watch her in the 2024 movie release Never Let Go in theaters on September 27th.