Meryl Streep ‘expectedly’ does the unexpected
Lifetime Achievement awards are usually bestowed on senior artists in the golden afterglow of their iconic careers—but, Meryl Streep is in a league of her own, the excellent exception to all limiting rules and expectations.
Thus, when the Golden Globes crowned her with their prized Lifetime Achievement award last week, she was still at the “sustained apex” of her glorious thespic reign, which shows no sight of slacking off.
In fact, at the very same awards rites, she was also nominated in the best lead actress category, for her latest unique characterization in “Florence Foster Jenkins.” No old, doddering retiree, she!
It was the perfect occasion for a much acclaimed honoree to pat herself on the back as she gratifiedly and satisfiedly looked back on a golden career teeming with hits and awards aplenty, ranging from the sublime to the “ridicuous”—that her exceptional talent also made sublime!
An actress formally schooled in the classics, she was so secure in her thespic acumen that she could occasionally let down her hair, shake it into a frizzy and messy mop, and belt out a soppy Abba anthem or three.
Instead of reminding everyone of her peerless achievements, however, Streep opted to “forget” all that, and instead stepped up to a higher level—by using the global platform that the televised awards rites viewed by multimillions—to deliver a meaningful, cautionary message that went beyond the movies.
It hit at the heart of the incoming US presidency, which she castigated for its divisive indictment of “Hollywood, foreigners and the press,” and for its “instinct to humiliate.”
The fact that it’s Donald Trump engaging in the sectoral humiliation, Streep rued, made its effects fare worse, because “it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing.”
“Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position
to bully others, we all lose.”
On the importance of the principled press, another Trump target, she urged her colleagues to defend and uphold its essential right “to hold power to account. We need it going forward, and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.”
Some viewers may have thought that Streep was overstepping her “jurisdiction” and should instead limited herself to expressing her gratitude for the prized honor she had just received.
But others less restrictingly observed that the honoree was just being true to her convictions and penchant for “Streep being Streep”—meaning, she doesn’t do what’s expected.
Then, too, there was the realization that the global TV “platform” that the awards rites offered was too good an opportunity for Streep to pass up, in order to exponentially in- crease the impact of her cautionary message, and warning.
What about Trump? Similarly true to his form, he immediately tweeted a testy tirade aimed at “Meryl Streep—one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, a Hillary flunky who lost big.” Tit for tweet?