Streep honors Time’s Up – and men
NBR Awards continue the push for inclusion
NEW YORK – Two days after female empowerment dominated the conversation at Sunday’s black-clad Golden Globes, the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements were still very much on stars’ minds at the National Board of Review Awards.
Packing the cavernous Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday night, actors and filmmakers gathered to celebrate, among others, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Jordan Peele and Meryl Streep, who used her best-actress win for Steven Spielberg’s The Post to honor both men and women.
“I love men,” Streep started. “Yeah, I know it’s the year of the woman and everything, but all of my mentors have been men,” including the Public Theater founder Joseph Papp and directors Mike Nichols and Alan Pakula.
The Post, which also took home best film and actor (Hanks), chronicles The Washington Post’s 1971 decision to publish the Pentagon Papers, led by publisher Katharine Graham and editor Ben Bradlee.
“Our film, in this very fraught moment, is about the best working situation between a man and a woman — where respect and devotion to the work is paramount,” Streep continued.
“Honestly, in my 40 years of making movies, that’s been my experience almost all the time.”
She closed with a timely anecdote from Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who told her last week, “‘You know, this moment for women? This #MeToo? This Time’s Up? This is your Pentagon Papers moment.’ I think the movie really did meet its moment in time, and the time’s up. So let’s go, girls!”
Female-driven storytelling was recognized throughout the awards, whose winners were announced in November. Lady Bird’s Greta Gerwig triumphed in best director, while Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot were given the Spotlight Award for the superhero movie’s accomplishments, having earned $821.8 million worldwide and stellar reviews (92% positive on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes).
Speaking on the red carpet beforehand, Jenkins praised Barbra Streisand and Natalie Portman, both of whom made passionate — and deadpan — pleas for more female directors at the Golden Globes.
In order to help get more women in Hollywood hired behind the scenes, people should speak up “exactly like they did,” Jenkins told USA TODAY. “Obviously, there’s something strange. Women make incredibly successful movies all the time, and they are rarely acknowledged as directors. Clearly, attention needs to be brought to it.”
The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies, who presented Gadot and Jenkins their prize, echoed the latter’s sentiments.
“There isn’t a lack of female directors — there’s a lack of hiring female directors, and I think that’s going to change,” Margulies told USA TODAY. “I think everything’s going to change. I think everyone who thinks this is a moment (rather than a movement) needs to wipe the fog out of their glasses, because we’ll finish what we started.”