This post deals with alcohol abuse and domestic violence, and may be triggering for some readers.

When actor and Hollywood royalty H alle Berry won an Oscar in 2002, she thought her career would skyrocket.

She was at the top of her game, having starred in multiple hit films. So in 2004, when she starred in Catwoman, Berry didn't expect the harsh reaction that followed.

Watch: Catwoman 2004 official trailer. Post continues below.

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We take a look back at Berry's rise to fame, the impactCatwomanhad, and her life off-screen.

A pageant queen turned actor.

Halle Berry was born on August 14, 1966, in Ohio to father Jerome and mother Judith. Her parents then divorced when she was four, leaving her mum to raise her two children on her own.

"There's lots of abuse in my childhood. I grew up with an alcoholic father that was very abusive, both verbally, emotionally, physically," Berry shared on the podcast Fresh Air.

"My father was just trying to survive. He was trying to find himself, find his manhood. And he was doing the best he could, and while he failed me and my family miserably, he really was only working with the tools he had been given."

Growing up in a heavily white neighbourhood, Berry said she often felt "insecure". "It was sickening how much I craved being liked. I was Miss Everything: cheerleader, student senator, on the newspaper, the honour roll, you name it," Berry reflected.

By the time Berry was 18, she had competed in the Miss Teen All American pageant, which she won. Only a year later, Berry began attracting media attention when she was the first runner-up in the 1986 Miss USA pageant, and when she represented Ohio in that year's Miss USA Universe competition.

Deciding to pursue an acting career, Berry's breakout role was in Spike Lee's 1991 filmJungle Fever, as"with that movie, people realised I could act," she said to Hello! Magazine .

Additional films includedBoomerangwhere she starred alongside Eddie Murphy, the biopicIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge(which she won a Golden Globe and Emmy for),X-MenandThe Flintstones.

Another highlight would have to be her work in the Bond filmDie Another Dayin 2002.

But of course the fact that Berry was a woman of colour also resulted in a lot of "missed opportunities" due to discrimination.

"I never even got the chance to read forThe Silence Of The LambsorIndecent Proposal," she said. "The excuse is that a Black woman would change what the movie was all about."

When Halle Berry won an Oscar, she thought her career would skyrocket.

In 2002, Berry won the Best Actress Oscar for her role inMonster's Ball, becoming the first Black woman to do so.

Reflecting on the lack of representation in the film industry - particularly the fact she is one of the few Black women to win a Best Actress Oscar - Berry said: "I do feel completely heartbroken that there's no other woman standing next to me in 20 years. I thought that night meant a lot of things would change, that there would be other women. I thought that I would have the script truck back up to my front door and I'd have an opportunity to play any role I wanted. That didn't happen. But what I do know happened that night is that so many people of colour got inspired."

The one movie that threatened to kill Halle Berry's career.

After winning her Oscar, Berry's career was at an all-time high. But in 2004 when she played Patience Phillips, a woman who develops cat-like powers in the DC Comics-inspired filmCatwoman, her credibility took a hit.

The film was a major box-office disappointment and racked up seven Golden Raspberry 'Razzie' Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.

To her credit, Berry actually went to accept her Razzie Award saying in her 'acceptance' speech: "First of all, I want to thank Warner Brothers for putting me in a piece-of-s**t, God-awful movie. It was just what my career needed! I was at the top, and thenCatwomanjust plummeted me to the bottom. Love it! It's hard being on top. It's much better being on the bottom."

And although Berry's ability to laugh and poke fun at the film is pretty remarkable, it was a real blow for Berry and something that would stick with her for years to come.

Of course,Catwomandidn't end Berry's acting career. She did go on to direct and produce films, as well as starring in some recent movies likeBruisedandKidnapped.

ButCatwomancertainly didn't help Berry's career.

Reflecting on the immense criticism faced, she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2021: "The disheartening part was, I didn't direct it, I didn't produce it, nor did I write it. I was just t