Halle Berry is a brilliant actress and her numerous awards, including an Oscar, can certainly vouch for that. However, even talented actors and actresses like her can sometimes do projects which are not received well by the audience. For Halle Berry, that project is the film starring DC Comics’ superheroine, Catwoman, in the namesake film.
Halle Berry
The 2004 movie has received a ton of negative feedback from fans and even appeared on Roger Ebert’s list of most hated films. However, Halle Berry, who played the title character, was considered to be the only good thing about the film. But, the actress didn’t let the failure of Catwoman affect her and she moved on in her career which can be proved by the fact that she went on stage to collect her Razzie award and gave an incredible speech and roasted Warner Bros. along the way.
Halle Berry’s Fierce Golden Raspberry Awards Speech
Halle Berry receives Razzie Award
While the mainstream award ceremonies highlight and reward the brilliant works of artists, the Golden Raspberry Awards or the Razzies are the complete opposite. They are a parody show which presents awards to some of cinema’s worst failures. Back in the 2005 ceremony, Halle Berry won the Worst Actress Razzie Award for Catwoman.
Unlike other celebrities, Berry decided to be a good sport and receive the “award” by herself. Not only did she receive the award, but she also gave quite a fierce speech, blasting Warner Bros. for plummeting her career with Catwoman. She also roasted her manager, the now-disgraced Vincent Cirrincione, and stated that while she loved him, he should read scripts next time and not worry about the paycheck.
“First of all, I want to thank Warner Brothers for putting me in a piece of sh*t, god-awful movie. It was just what my career needed! I was at the top and then Catwoman just plummeted me to the bottom. Love it! It’s hard being on top. It’s much better being on the bottom. I want to thank my manager, Vincent Cirrincione. This guy loves me. He loves me so much that he convinces me to do projects even when he knows they’re sh*t!…My only advice to you is next time I do a movie, if I get to do another movie, maybe you should read the script. Just counting zeroes behind the one isn’t enough. You really have to read the script.”
So while Berry did win a Razzie Award for Catwoman, she also won tons of brownie points for her attitude toward it all. After all, going to personally receive a parody award for a film that has a score of 8% on Rotten Tomatoes couldn’t be easy! Kudos to her for being a sport!
Why Halle Berry Went to the Razzie Awards
Halle Berry as and in Catwoman
Now, it may have been a bit confusing to think as to why Berry decided to attend the award ceremony. What was really going on in her mind? Well, she sat down with Vanity Fair in 2021, sixteen years after the Razzie Awards, to reveal why she did what she did.
“I went to the Razzie [Awards] because I feel like we all take ourselves so seriously. If we get an award, if we get the Oscar, we somehow are made to feel like we’re somehow better than everybody else. But we’re really not…So if you find yourself face-to-face with a Razzie, does that mean you’re the worst actor there ever was? Probably not…I never in my life thought I would be up here. Winning a Razzie! I just decided to just take it all and just not take myself too seriously…And if I can show up to collect an Oscar when you’re honouring me, I can certainly show up to collect a Razzie when you say, Good try, but do better. I always learned that if you can’t be a good loser then you don’t deserve to be a good winner. So i went there and made fun of myself. I had a great time, and then I set that thing on fire.”
Even though the Razzie Award has been turned into ashes by Berry, the iconic moment lives on! She sure is right about not taking things too seriously and her action could be a great example of facing criticism with a bold face.
Catwoman is available to stream on HBO Max.
