Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes to call out the president-elect for appearing to mock a disabled New York Times reporter in 2015.
Without ever uttering Donald Trump’s name the 67-year-old actress said, “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. 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.”
Speaking to a room filled with Hollywood a-listers she added, “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.”
“That instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same.”
“Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”
WATCH: Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe’s speech will give you goose bumps. Post continues after video…
Meryl also went on to champion the need for a principled press, in order “to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage”, urging support for the Committee to Protect Journalists (an independent non-profit promoting press freedom around the globe).
The explosive six-minute speech, which had everyone in the room spellbound and garnered a standing ovation after Meryl was finished, wasn’t well received by Trump himself.
Taking to Twitter in the early hours of Monday morning, he hit back saying, “Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes.”
“She is a Hillary flunky who lost big.”
Speaking to his impersonation of a disabled member of the media, Trump also wrote, “For the 100th time, I never “mocked” a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him…….”groveling” when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!”
Ironically, Trump previously named Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts among his favourite actresses during an interview in 2015 with The Hollywood Reporter’s Janice Min.
“Julia Roberts is terrific, and many others,” he said, going on to add, “Meryl Streep is excellent; she’s a fine person, too.”
While Trump may not have been impressed with Meryl’s speech, it’s clear her impassioned words did strike a chord with many. Today, it’s been reported that the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organisation Meryl name-checked in her speech, received over $60,000 in donations after the Golden Globes.
In the wake of Trump’s reaction to the speech, many of Meryl’s Hollywood peers have stepped forward to praise the star on social media.
This story originally appeared on Woman’s Day Australia
