Halle Berry Debuts Wild Hair Transformation on Oscars 2021 Red Carpet

Halle Berry showed off a surprising new hairstyle at the 2021 Oscars on Sunday night. As she walked the red carpet, the Oscar-winner donned a new bob with short bangs that very different from the long hair she has worn recently. The short hairdo reminded many of the short cut Berry had at the 2002 Oscars when she made history as the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar.

The Monster’s Ball star teased the new look on Twitter first by sharing a photo of her hair on the floor of a salon. “Uh-oh… SHE has arrived for Oscars night,” one fan wrote, alongside photos of Berry with her Oscar. “Yeap,” Berry wrote, adding a winking emoji. “Stay tuned.” When it was finally Berry’s turn to walk the red carpet, she showed off a hairdo that was not exactly the same as her 2002 look, but it was much shorter than fans have become used to seeing her.

Although Berry won her Oscar almost two decades ago, there still has not been another Black actress to win the Best Actress Oscar. This year, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom star Viola Davis and The United States vs. Billie Holiday‘s Andra Day hope to join her as the second. In a recent Variety interview, Barry reflected on how disappointed she is that there has not been a second Black winner.

“It’s one of my biggest heartbreaks,” Berry explained. “The morning after, I thought, ‘Wow, I was chosen to open a door.’ And then, to have no one … I question, ‘Was that an important moment, or was it just an important moment for me?’ I wanted to believe it was so much bigger than me. It felt so much bigger than me, mainly because I knew others should have been there before me and they weren’t.”

After she won, Berry said she faced hurdles. She recalled how the producers of the James Bond movie Die Another Day wanted her to star in a spinoff featuring her character Jinx. At the time, MGM rejected the idea. “It was very disappointing,” Berry told the outlet. “It was ahead of its time. Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star. They just weren’t sure of its value. That’s where we were then.”

Berry recently starred in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Last year, she starred in Bruised, which centers on a former MMA fighter how tries to get custody of her son back. Berry also directed the movie, which will be released on Netflix this year.