In a moving acceptance speech, while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, Meryl Streep call out President-Elect Donald Trump for mocking a disabled New York Times reporter in 2015, and warned that a free press would need to be defended.
Streep had been a passionate supporter of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
She called on the press to hold power to account, and said that the freedom of the press needed to be protected now more than ever. Describing the diverse backgrounds of some of her acting contemporaries, Streep said,
....Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.Meryl Streep, Actor
Streep said that she was stunned and heartbroken when she saw Trump imitating a disabled reporter on the campaign trail.
There was one performance this year that stunned me, it sank its hook 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 in 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 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 kind of gives permission for other people to do the same. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence invites violence.Meryl Streep, Actor
The businessman-turned-politician had mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski and imitated his disability at an election rally in South Carolina.
Streep also called upon the press to hold the “power to account” and call Trump out on every “outrage”.
That's why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution. Because we're going to need them going forward and they'll need us to safeguard the truth.Meryl Streep, Actor And Singer
At tonight's #GoldenGlobes we honor Hollywood legend Meryl Streep with the prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. pic.twitter.com/dxpeCDNXY6
Donald Trump brushed Streep's remarks aside, calling her a “Hillary lover”. In a telephonic interview with the New York Times, Trump said that while he had not seen Streep's acceptance speech, he was "not surprised" to come under attack from "liberal movie people".
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