On Sunday, amidst the normal glitz and glamor that comes with Hollywood awards shows, Meryl Streep let her voice shine through.
The Hollywood mega-icon is no stranger to the spotlight. With a career spanning several generations, and more trophies and accolades than we care to list here, Streep could easily fade into the background and live out her days quietly and peacefully, but instead she is choosing to step right out onto the ledge and let her colleagues, Hollywood, America, and the world know exactly how she feels about President-elect Donald Trump.
Streep was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award during this year’s Golden Globe telecast. The honorary award is given for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.” Streep used her few minutes on stage as a platform to show that she will not sit back and take hate, bigotry, and bullying during the Trump years, and let it be known that neither should you.
“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,” Streep said about her work and the work of those who filled the room, before adding, “There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart—not because it was good. There was nothing good about it.”
Streep went on to reveal that performance was done by none other than Donald Trump during his run for office. She added,
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 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 kind of 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.
Before ending her speech, Streep evoked a quote from her friend Carrie Fisher. “As my friend the dear departed Princess Leia said to me once, ‘Take your broken heart, make it into art.’”
Watch her entire speech below.
