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Halle Berry, as of press time the only black woman to ever receive an Oscar for Best Actress, is a national treasure. She brings a sense of dedication and emotion to her movie roles that tends to leave audiences speechless. It’s no wonder she was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s, which some might argue was the peak of her career.
Even if you’ve never seen one Halle Berry movie, you probably know this: She’s drop dead gorgeous. That reputation, though, has come with a litany of side effects, even in an industry like Hollywood that worships good looks. Berry has spoken in the past of her struggles with being pigeon-holed into playing the “pretty girl” character, which as a general rule, aren’t the most complex characters. This has been an issue for her from the very beginning of her career, when she tried out for Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever. Lee wanted her to audition for the role of his wife, but in what has become a testament to how seriously she has always taken her career, she fought to play the messier, more problematic character of a “crack ho,” as she explained to W magazine in 2016.
“It was intentional to not play the gorgeous girl…I had the job of trying to eliminate that part of my persona, and Spike gave me a chance to do that," she told the publication. "And I took on roles early on that really didn’t rely on my physical self at all, and that was a good way to sort of get some credibility within my industry. And it was an amazing way to start my career, playing a crack ho, be directed by Spike Lee. It was major for me.”
So, in honor of Berry’s dedication and talent, we’ve rounded up the best Halle Berry movies. However, keep in mind that this list does not include her actual best performance as herself at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, when she chugged an entire glass of bourbon during a Kingsman panel. What a goddamn badass.
Halle chugs her adult beverage. #kingsman #sdcc pic.twitter.com/JEq5Y8MKRu
— Brian Truitt (@briantruitt) July 20, 2017
Monster's Ball (2001)
Monster’s Ball is a complex drama that gave Berry so much depth and texture to work with that she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. This made her the first black woman to ever be nominated for and receive such an accolade from the Academy, and to this day she is still (!) the only one with that title, which is beyond ridiculous. But Berry truly did deserve it: Her performance as Leticia, a poor widow who unwittingly gets romantically involved with the police officer who killed her husband, is complicated, dark, and, ultimately, moving.
Die Another Day (2002)
Has there ever been a more iconic orange bikini in the entire history of pop culture? The answer is a resounding no; Berry’s role as Jinx, the Bond girl in Pierce Brosnan’s last run as Bond, is a badass NSA agent. She was also the first ever black woman to play the sexy Bond girl role, and the first black woman in 17 years to star in a James Bond movie in any capacity, either, as Bond girl or as a villain, since Grace Jones played May Day in A View to Kill.
Jungle Fever (1991)
Spike Lee’s fifth feature length film tells the story of the rise and fall of an interracial relationship. Like Do The Right Thing and Crooklyn, Jungle Fever is set against a New York City backdrop, which allows the movie to explore issues of racism and drug addiction that are also relevant to the urban setting and influence the relationship at the center of the film. Halle Berry’s role as Vivian, Samuel L. Jackson’s crack-addicted girlfriend, was also her first movie role, and even though her part is a minor one, her gritty performance is a good indicator of the dedication she puts into her job as an actress.
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1991)
This powerful and important HBO movie written by Shonda Rhimes chronicles the life of actress Dorothy Dandridge, who is most well known for being the first black woman to ever receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress (how fitting, then, that the only black actress to actually win that award played Dandridge in the movie). The film serves as a great primer for understanding the effect that this black actress had on paving the way for actors and actresses of color. Dandridge worked in the 1950s, in the same time and place as Marilyn Monroe, and although the world outside of Hollywood was deeply racist and segregated, it was a time when actors of color were beginning to be represented on the screen. That said, though, Dandridge is important because she actively refused to accept any roles that asked her to play the stereotypical black woman. Berry plays Dandridge with all the sex appeal that Dandridge was so proud of in her time, but is also able to lend the character a more introspective and vulnerable side that makes the movie a textured and entertaining triumph.
Gothika (2003)
In this supernatural thriller, Halle Berry plays Dr. Miranda Grey, a doctor at a women’s psychiatry hospital whose body is possessed by a ghost. One day, she wakes up as a patient in the same hospital she used to work at, with no memory and accused of violently murdering her husband. The rest of the movie is a breathless battle between Miranda’s physical body and her mind. Unfortunately, the movie is a victim of cliché plot holes and fails as a thriller, but Berry shines in her role, saving it from being a total disaster.
The Call (2013)
Berry returns to the thriller genre with The Call, a low-budget, yet surprisingly suspenseful story of a 911 operator (Berry) who must deal with the psychological trauma of having to help out a young girl who has been kidnapped by a serial killer and manages to call for help. Michael Eklund turns up the volume on his serial killer role to very high levels of creepy, making for a consistently tense atmosphere; Abigail Breslin is believable enough as the damsel in distress; and Berry’s role as the heroine has all the vulnerable and badass qualities that actress is known for.
Losing Isaiah (1995)
This is a gut-wrenching exploration of motherhood and how race, social class, and drug addiction influence that most precious of relationships between a mother and her child. Berry plays a mother addicted to crack cocaine who one day loses track of her baby, named Isaiah, while getting high; Jessica Lange plays the social worker who ends up adopting Isaiah. Once Berry’s character gets sober, though, she tracks down her baby, and the ensuing legal battle touches on thorny societal issues like race and social class, but also asks questions about how a family is created and how a mother is defined. Have the tissues ready.
Things We Lost in the Fire (2007)
This movie has a lot of the same elements as other movies on this list: a bitter widow and lots of drugs. Halle Berry does play the widow again, but this time she’s not the drug addict. That role goes to Benicio Del Toro, who moves in with Berry and her two children after her husband and his closest friend unexpectedly die. And no, they don’t eventually end up together; the movie is not that cliché. Del Toro’s presence in Berry’s life is rocky: At times they are able they help each other through their issues, and Del Toro becomes close to Berry’s children. But at other times, Berry takes out her grief on Del Toro, who is not only incapable of remaining sober for very long, but also often reminds her of her deceased husband, triggering lots of pain. The result is a blistering, heartbreaking depiction of the different ways grief can manifest itself—and, eventually, how to heal. In addition, many called Berry’s performance her best in years, bringing back Monster’s Ball-era drama and conviction to her role.