Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes Acceptance Speech Embraces Diversity, Criticizes Trump

image+courtesy+of+Harpers+Bazaar

image courtesy of Harpers Bazaar

Trinity Pelina, Staff Writer

Renowned Hollywood actress Meryl Streep made waves at this year’s Golden Globe Awards on January 8th when she gave her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. Streep currently holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations of all time, with a total of 28. She has also been nominated for 19 Academy Awards. Her filmography is extensive, and Streep is considered by many to be one of the greatest actresses of our time. 

After receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Streep proceeded to give her acceptance speech. In her speech, she addressed several topics, including the subject of diversity in Hollywood: “You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners and the press. But who are we, and what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places…Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?” Streep said, pointing out that even though there is a growing amount of anti-foreigner sentiment, many of Hollywood’s well-known and revered actors/actresses are foreigners.  

[wpdevart_youtube]NxyGmyEby40[/wpdevart_youtube] Meryl also commented on what it means to be an actor: “An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.” She then proceeded to draw attention to another “performance” that took her breath away: when president-elect Donald Trump mocked a reporter’s disability in November 2015. “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it,” continued Streep, “and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.” Donald Trump received major backlash after he imitated a New York Times reporter with a congenital joint condition during one of Trump’s rallies.

To conclude her speech, Streep called for the press to hold Trump accountable for his actions: “We need the principled press to hold power to  

President-Elect Trump’s Twitter response to Streep’s comments

account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in the Constitution.” Though Meryl’s speech touched the hearts of many, the president-elect himself was quick to throw harsh words at the actress on Twitter- calling her “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood,” and a “Hillary flunky.” He also claimed he never mocked the reporter, despite the numerous videos of the event that have emerged.

Meryl has yet to offer any statement in response to Trump’s tweets. Her full speech is available to read here.