“We can get through”: Streep
NEW YORK — Steven Spielberg’s newspaper drama “The Post” took a bow at a politically charged National Board of Review Awards where Robert De Niro lambasted President Donald Trump with an expletive-laden tirade and 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. But given that the film was unexpectedly shut out at Sunday’s Golden Globes, Streep, Spielberg and Hanks were able to trot out the speeches they might have given days earlier.
“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.
Accepting the night’s top award for best picture, Spielberg said he felt “a social imperative” to immediately make the script, by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, about a free press standing up to a corrupt White House under Richard Nixon.
“We are in a fight and it’s a fight not just about alternative facts but it’s a fight for the objective truth,” said Spielberg. “President Obama said in a recent interview, ‘It’s not that democracy is fragile but it’s reversible.’”