Meryl Streep added another award to her vast collection on Sunday, accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes. Not content to merely thank those who honored her, and unwilling to limit remarks to her field of expertise, Streep took the opportunity to swipe at President-elect Donald Trump. From People:
Streep then addressed the real-life “performance” from 2016 that “stunned” her — Trump making mimicking [sic] a disabled reporter — that she noted as being “effective and it did it’s job.”
“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,” added Streep of Trump’s impersonation.
She later continued, “Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence” before calling on support of the media.
Watching the video, it’s worth noting the many rapt faces in the celebrity audience.
Clearly, these people find this kind of thing meaningful. That general sense of importance was later expressed by Streep herself.
“One more thing. Once, when I was standing around on the set one day whining about something, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, ‘isn’t it such a privilege Meryl to be an actor?’” to which she responded, “Yeah it is and we have to remind ourselves of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy.”
Whatever that responsibility is, it lacks the gravity Streep attempts to convey. She’s not putting out fires or running into gunfire to save lives. She plays make-believe for a living. That’s the limit of her responsibility, and it has little to no application in politics.
Something tells me she didn’t quite follow the point Tommy Lee was making. It’s a privilege to get paid to perform. So maybe shut up and show some grace?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpsiwSmy4mg
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