Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were amongst the group of A-list celebrities who walked away as winners at the 74th Golden Globes awards ceremony on Sunday.
How To Get Away with Murder star Davis, who was the first celebrity for 2017 to receive her Hollywood Star Walk of Fame on January 4, received the accolade for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in the movie Fences.
A photo posted by Viola Davis (@violadavis) on
Meryl Streep had praised Davis after receiving her star, calling Davis “inevitable”. “She is like a sure thing, and her star has been waiting here patiently for 50 years for her,” Streep said.
After receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the ever formidable Streep took the opportunity to give an ardent speech as she focused the attention on US President-elect Donald Trump.
In 2015 Trump had mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, Serge F. Kovaleski, after imitating the way Kovaleski looked. Streep used the platform to campaign for freedom within the media, particularly against the power and influence that Trump’s comments have over his followers.
“It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose. Okay, go on with it,” Streep said.
Streep’s comments were applauded.
The New York Time’s reported that Trump had called Streep “a Hillary lover”, reacting to her criticism against him. Trump’s inauguration is set for Friday 20 January and he will be the 45th President of the United States to be sworn in.