With 30 award nominations and eight wins, it’s no surprise that Meryl Streep took home the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Golden Globes on Jan. 8.
Streep used her time onstage to not only thank her family and friends but also to emphasize her hatred and disgust for President Donald Trump.
“There was one performance this year that stunned me…There was nothing good about it,” Streep said. “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.”
The decorated actress used the remainder of her speech to reach out to the press by asking journalists to ‘protect the truth’ and bring Trump’s actions into the spotlight.
Streep has been an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton during this election season and spoke on behalf of her at the Democratic National Convention in July. She has poked fun at Trump on multiple occasions, including a humorous impersonation of him on June 6.
“Meryl Streep is a bold, independent woman who really speaks her mind,” freshman Juli Neris said. “She doesn’t want Trump to get away with his crazy ideas for America.”
Streep isn’t the only celebrity to use award shows to discuss his or her stance on world issues. Leonardo DiCaprio used his 2016 Golden Globe award for his performance in The Revenant to advocate for Native Americans living near the film’s set. In February 2016, just a few weeks after the Golden Globes, DiCaprio went on to speak about global warming when he received his first Oscar. The actor has created the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation to advocate for climate change and work towards clearing the atmosphere.
Although celebrities generally have good intentions for their speeches, many see their involvement in the media as negative. Even other actors and entertainers have expressed how useless they think it is.
“A lot of Hollywood is living in a bubble,” celebrated actor Mark Wahlberg said, according to Business Insider. “They’re pretty out of touch with the common person: the everyday guy out there providing for their family.”
Because celebrities are so isolated from the general public, they usually don’t have the same experiences as people who aren’t living in the spotlight.
“If they [celebrities] just run off at the mouth, and they’re not educated on the subject, then it is not beneficial,” sophomore Madison Gammichia said. “But when a celebrity has passion about something and gets some value from the subject, then I think it’s good that they are trying to get involved.”
Emma Watson is one such celebrity who has worked for philanthropic causes. Watson, an outspoken feminist and bookworm, travels all over the world to speak about gender equality. Since 2014, Watson has appeared at the U.N. to speak about gender inequality in school and also visited the One Young World event in Ottawa while balancing her busy acting career.
Many celebrities continue to use their platform to speak up for the issues they feel passionately about. Whether or not their advocacy is progressive or necessary remains a heated debate within the entertainment industry as well as the public eye.
