Halle: No good roles for black women

When she became the first black woman to win the best actress Oscar, Halle Berry hoped she would be the first of many.

Three years on, however, no woman has repeated her success. So Miss Berry, 38, has launched a savage attack on Hollywood producers and directors, accusing them of racial prejudice.

'The struggle for a woman of colour to find good material is still very present, and it's a struggle I fight every day,' she said.

Miss Berry said there was such a shortage of decent roles on offer that she had resorted to buying the rights of books she wanted to develop into films.

The actress, who was honoured in 2002 for her role in Monster's Ball as the wife of a prisoner on Death Row, has four such projects in development.

'I try to make the best out of what comes to me but it's going to be about making my own reality really,' she added.

'I've been called a nigger straight to my face . . . but there's also much more subtle insidious ways that racism occurs here in Hollywood.

'I don't care what anyone says - they may think it doesn't exist, but it's usually those who aren't black who think that.'

When she accepted her Oscar, Miss Berry made it clear she saw it as a breakthrough.

In an emotional speech, she said: 'This is for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door, tonight, has been opened. Tonight the glass ceiling has been broken and I hope that it is shattered forever.'

Her comments came before today's announcement of this year's Academy Award nominations, when no woman from an ethnic minority is expected to be in the running for best actress and supporting actress.