Halle Berry says her good looks affected her career

THE Oscar-winning actress has claimed that she wasn’t taken seriously at the beginning of her career because of her good looks.

Halle Berry speaks onstage during the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.

PRETTY hurts, just ask Halle Berry.

The Oscar-winning actress has claimed that she wasn’t taken seriously at the beginning of her career because of her good looks.

“I came from the world of beauty pageants and modelling and right away when people heard that I got discounted as an actor,” the 50-year-old said to W magazine.

Berry also explained the bizarre reason that she started entering beauty pageants in the first place.

“Actually, my boyfriend at the time wanted a beauty pageant girlfriend,” she revealed.

“So he entered me and I got this letter in the mail saying, ‘You are a finalist in the Miss Team Ohio,’ and I thought, ‘Uh, what is this?’ And then he told me, ‘Oh, by the way, I sent your prom picture in and now you have to go’.”

Halle Berry poses in W magazine.

The actress got her first big break in 1991 when Spike Lee gave her a role in Jungle Fever, but at first it wasn’t the role she wanted.

“Spike Lee wanted me to read for the part of his wife and I read that part fine enough, but then I said to Spike, ‘You know, I really am eyeing this crack ho role, can you please let me audition for that?’

“He said, ‘no, no I don’t see you as the crack ho’. I said, ‘I am the crack ho. Really deep down I’m the crack ho!’ And he was like, ‘No, I don’t see it.’ And I said, ‘Let me go in the bathroom, wash all this makeup off; you will see eyeing the crack ho’.

“He let me do that and I came back out and I got to read the crack ho, and I got the part of the of the crack ho. And it was an amazing way to start my career, playing a crack ho directed by Spike Lee. It was major for me.”

Berry said she managed to get some credibility within the entertainment industry by seeking out roles that “didn’t really rely on my physical self at all”.

But despite her credibility, Lee Daniels had no interest in casting Halle Berry in his 2001 movie, Monsters Ball.

“Lee Daniels didn’t want to see me read,” the actress said.

Halle Berry holds her Oscar statuette backstage at the 74th Annual Academy Awards in 2002.

“He was actually disgusted by the thought. He thought there’s no way and my argument to him was, just because someone looks a certain way doesn’t mean that they are spared adversity. Adversity does not discriminate.

“I thought, ‘My looks haven’t spared me one hardship or one hurt moment or one painful situation. So please, you know, give me a shot at this’. I said, ‘I often think it’s more interesting when you see someone that looks a certain way struggle in ways that you wouldn’t think they would be struggling with’.”

Berry went on to win an Oscar for her role in the film, becoming the first African-American actress to win an Academy Award.

“He ultimately gave me a chance and that sort of changed the course of my career in so many ways,” Berry said about Daniels.