In 1999, Halle Berry brought the Hollywood legend Dorothy Dandridge back to life, in the drama Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. To truly get into the shoes of the late actress, who tragically passed away of overdosage at the young age of 42 in 1965, Berry tried a myriad of ways. One of these ways involved holding onto the late actress’ dear possessions, including a dress to draw inspiration from the real “Dottie” which she kept at her house to nail the role.
However, this plan backfired, as she blamed a string of unusual occurrences on that dress. Suspecting it may have been the presence of Dandridge’s spirits that was responsible for the strange events, the actress spoke about the strange occurrences a few times on different occasions, here is what is known about them.
Halle Berry Believed Dorothy Dandridge’s Dress Was Haunted
Halle Berry is an Academy Award-winning actress. Although this project came before her win, the determination and commitment to absolutely immerse herself into the characters she portrayed was always there. And thus to find inspiration even when she was off camera, she kept a few things of the Hollywood star Dorothy Dandridge with her at her house, including a magnificent dress, that fit her like a glove. Berry disclosed to Ebony magazine in 1999,
“I thought, `If the dress fits, wear it.'”
But things soon started to go south, strange things like, light switches would flicker, and the fridge door would swing right open all by itself, according to the actress, the housekeeper of her house would also often find “the chair in front of my vanity pulled out.” As she elaborated on it, as reported by Contact Music,
“Then other strange things happened in the house while I had that dress. I’d come home and the housekeeper would say she’d heard my vanity chair moving upstairs in my bathroom. And our fridge door would fly open by itself. I’m not kidding,”
Although they were strange enough, Berry did not think of returning the dress, until, she said,
“When I was making my Dorothy Dandridge movie, I know she was with me. I had one of her original dresses, which I kept for inspiration in my den covered in paper and plastic to protect it,–One night I was at home with a friend drinking tea and we heard all this rustling noise. At first I thought it was just water dripping from the teapot, then I realized it was coming from the room, and the paper on the dress was rattling – all by itself! My friend and I both hauled ass out of there so fast,”
This compelled her to make the decision to part from the dress, even though it was a difficult choice to make for her. Surprisingly, as soon as the dress left her house so did the supposed spirit haunting her house, bringing her a sense of relief.
Halle Berry Celebrated the Late Dorothy Dandridge’s 100th Birthday
Although Halle Berry portrayed the character more than two decades ago, she made sure to commemorate Dorothy Dandrige’s 100 birthday. As she took to Twitter (now known as X) to celebrate the occasion by stating,
“23 years ago I was privileged to bring the life of Dorothy Dandridge to the screen,–100 years ago today this legendary magical creature was born! Happy birthday Dottie”
Dandridge was truly a trailblazer, to say the least, the first black actress nominated for the Oscars for her performance in Carmen Jones. And was one of the most influential actors in the 90’s. Interstingly, Halle Berry after almost 50 years of Dandridge being nominated became the first ever black actress to win the Best Actress Academy Award.
Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is currently available on HBO Max to stream.
Source: Contact Music
