6 times stars used their acceptance speeches to shock, provoke and inspire
Every January, the Golden Globes usher in the official start to Awards Season, bringing artfully sequined ball gowns, meme-worthy flubs, and slightly tipsy speeches with it. While this year's Globes also gave us a few nice surprises (Moonlight deservedly took home the Best Motion Picture — Drama award, Tracee Ellis Ross won for Blackish, making her the first black woman to take the Comedy Actress title since Debbie Allen in 1983 and Kristen Wiig and Steve Carrell brought typical presenter banter to a whole new, tearful level), the majority of the show just felt like more of the same. Same speeches, same celebs, same soft monologue jokes from a white dude with a late night talk show.
That is, until Meryl Streep got up to accept Cecil B. DeMille Award. Instead of gliding us through her many acting accomplishments (and boy, is that a weighty list) or sending thank yous to her team, Meryl spent her speech arguing for the importance of a diverse arts community and a free press, and taking the President-elect to task for the blatant and perilous hate he incites. She even called out his disgusting mockery of a Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times reporter with a disability, a story that's often forgotten about amidst the cavalcade of garbage the former reality show host dumps on us on a daily basis. All this while dealing with a barely-there voice.
Here's the full speech if you haven't seen it already:
Streep's speech got some criticism from right-wingers who believe that wealthy Hollywood types shouldn't use their platforms to get involved in politics. I see that argument, and I raise you a reality star turned prominent politician who lives in a gold playpen.
So, in Meryl's honour, we're paying tribute to some other famous winners who poked a hole in Awards Season monotony by getting political and asking us to consider something more important than their own star power.
Marlon Brando at the Academy Awards in 1973
Brando protested the treatment of Native Americans in and by the film industry, declining to accept his Best Actor Oscar and giving Apache activist Sacheen Littlefeather the floor to speak, instead. While some celebrated Brando's move, others booed Littlefeather, and even tried to call her Native American ancestry into question.
Vanessa Redgrave at the Academy Awards in 1978
When Vanessa Redgrave took the part of a woman murdered by the Nazi regime in Julia, she caused an uproar amongst Jewish groups due to her involvement with a pro-Palestine documentary. Her speech was famously mocked by screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky later in the show, but not before she got to call her critics out as "Zionist hoodlums".
Jesse Williams at the BET Awards in 2016
You may have noticed that Jesse Williams is the only person of colour on this list, which says a lot about representation in film and television and the privilege that comes with being white in Hollywood (and, well, everywhere). Needless to say, Williams' speech was a powerful call to action for black men and women, arguing that "...a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do."
Michael Moore at the Academy Awards in 2013
After winning for Bowling for Columbine, Moore brought his competition, the other documentarians nominated that year, up on stage with him in solidarity. Moore proceeded to blast then-President Bush for the invasion of Iraq and the results of the 2000 election, claiming: "we are living in fictitious times." Huh. Sound familiar?
Patricia Arquette at the Academy Awards in 2015
Patricia Arquette made headlines when she used her Best Supporting Actress win for Boyhood to speak out about wage equality. Some rightly criticized Arquette for framing issues like racism and gay rights as battles that we've already overcome (and something that white women should be rewarded for fighting for). At the very least, Arquette's speech gave us this gif, and for that I'll be forever thankful: