Halle Berry was honored with this year’s SeeHer award at the Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday. The honor is given to women who advocate for gender equality, portray characters with authenticity, defy stereotypes, and push boundaries — and the 55-year-old actor embodies that in everything she does.
Berry began her speech by reflecting on the importance of her 2021 film “Bruised,” which marked her directorial debut. “When the film came out, I got the courage to ask someone what he thought of the movie and he said, ‘I have a hard time watching a woman get battered and beaten. It made me feel uncomfortable,'” she said. “And in that moment, I knew exactly why I had to tell this story. I knew exactly the power of the story, because I said, ‘If you had a hard time, if it made you uncomfortable watching that story, imagine being that woman living that story.”
“To every little girl who feels unseen and unheard, this is our way of saying to you: we love you and we see you and you deserve every good thing in this world.”
Berry then touched on the power of storytelling, adding, “It can raise our consciousness and help us think outside of ourselves and our individual circumstance. I realize we truly need to see each other’s realities no matter how uncomfortable it makes us, so that we might stop judging and stop pointing fingers but rather find compassion and empathy for the others.”
She concluded, “This is why I’m so grateful to be standing and living in this moment, where women are standing up and we are telling our own stories . . . we won’t always be pretty, and we will never be perfect, but what we will be is always honest and true, no matter how uncomfortable that makes you. These are the stories we have to fight to tell, and these are the stories the world needs to see. So, to every little girl who feels unseen and unheard, this is our way of saying to you: we love you, and we see you, and you deserve every good thing in this world.”
Throughout her 30-plus years in the spotlight, Berry has established herself as a force to be reckoned with. Her Oscar win for 2001’s “Monster’s Ball” made her the first Black woman to win the best actress award since the ceremony’s inception in 1929. She also won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role in 1999’s “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.”
In addition to her accolades, Berry has starred in a slew of TV shows and films over the years, including “Die Another Day,” “Gothika,” “Catwoman,” the X-Men franchise, “Extant,” “Knots Landing,” “Living Dolls,” “John Wick: Chapter 3,” “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” and most recently, “Bruised” and “Moonfall.” She joins the ranks of previous SeeHer recipients, including Zendaya, Gal Gadot, and Viola Davis.