Meryl Streep is no stranger to making a powerful statement through her acceptance speeches. Sheโs given enough of them. But her speech as todayโs Golden Globes has to be her most powerful yet.
It will truly give you chills.
Taking to the stage to accept the Cecil B. Demille Award for her incredible body of work, the legendary actress used the moment to take aim at President elect Donald Trump, called for freedom of the press โ and even managed to honour her friend Carrie Fisher.
โThere was one performance this year that stunned me,โ she said. โIt sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still canโt get it out of my head because it wasnโt in a movie. It was real life.โ
โAnd this instinct to humiliate, when itโs modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybodyโs life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing,โ she continued.
โDisrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. And the powerful use their position to bully others, we all loseโฆThis brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage. Thatโs why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution.
โSo I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood foreign press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the committee to protect journalists. Because weโre going to need them going forward. And theyโll need us to safeguard the truth.
โOne more thing: Once, when I was standing around on the set one day whining about somethingโwe were going to work through supper, or the long hours, or whateverโTommy Lee Jones said to me, โIsnโt it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?โ Yeah, it is. And we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be very proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight. As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, โTake your broken heart, make it into art. Thank you.โ