‘We can get through this moment’
Streep puts positive spin on gender relations as The Post cleans up at non-televised awards show in New York
NEW YORK — Steven Spielberg ’s newspaper drama The Post took a bow at a politically charged National Board of Review Awards where Meryl Streep took a moment in an awards season rife with gender politics to praise the men who have been her mentors and collaborators.
It was already decided that Tuesday night’s gala at Cipriani’s in midtown Manhattan would belong to The Post. The National Board of Review announced the winners last month, with The Post taking best picture, best actress for Streep and best actor for Tom Hanks.
“The men, I just think we can get through this moment,” said Streep, referring to the Me Too moment and sexual harassment scandals that have coursed through Hollywood. “Here’s the main thing I don’t want to go away: The danger of making movies. How far you have to push stuff. How physically, emotionally dangerous it can be. How much we really need to trust each other. I don’t want that to go away because that’s where art lives.”
Streep has been a prominent voice regarding gender equality in Hollywood following the fallout of disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein, who distributed numerous films of Streep’s. She’s among the several hundred women in the entertainment industry who have banded together in an initiative dubbed Time’s Up, to promote gender equality among Hollywood executives.
Streep concluded her remarks by quoting her character, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, who strides forward at a crucial moment in the male-dominated 1970s newspaper industry to publish the Pentagon Papers in The Post. “And the time’s up so let’s go girls,” said Streep. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.”
But Streep also sounded some more optimistic notes about gender relations in Hollywood.
“I love men,” said Streep. “Yeah, I know it’s the year of the woman and everything, but oh my god. The men. All my mentors have been men, even my sixth grade music teacher Paul Grossman, who let me sing five versions of O Holy Night in French, German and something else. And he became a woman, the first man in New Jersey to have surgery and become a woman.”
Here’s the main thing I don’t want to go away: The danger of making movies. How far you have to push stuff. How physically, emotionally dangerous it can be. How much we really need to trust each other. I don’t want that to go away because that’s where art lives.” Meryl Streep