2024- New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction
I am thrilled and honored to be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame alongside my heroes and the greats of our state. Thomas Edison and me. Me, a person whose name is in lights and the other person who invented lights. I mean, yikes. Back in high school in Bernardsville I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d ever be here. But it is my imagination that got me here. Because all my life I’ve imagined what it’s like to be other people. People not like me, not necessarily from New Jersey, people from other countries, other centuries, even. As actors, we’re encouraged to make that leap. But I know that curiosity is something that we all have in us from birth. We all wonder what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Imagination. It’s how we fly up and out of our own lives into the world that we share. And it’s where empathy and understanding are born. My dreams were born in New Jersey and my imagination was nurtured in her public schools. And for that I’m very, very grateful. Thank you for this wonderful honor.

2017 – Golden Globe (Cecil D. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award)
Please sit down. Thank you. I love you all. You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve lost my voice in screaming and lamentation this weekend. And I have lost my mind sometime earlier this year, so I have to read. Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said: You and all of us in this room really belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners, and the press. But who are we, and what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places. I was born and raised and educated in the public schools of New Jersey. Viola was born in a sharecropper’s cabin in South Carolina, came up in Central Falls, Rhode Island; Sarah Paulson was born in Florida, raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. Sarah Jessica Parker was one of seven or eight kids in Ohio. Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Italy. And Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates? And the beautiful Ruth Negga was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, raised in London — no, in Ireland I do believe, and she’s here nominated for playing a girl in small-town Virginia. Ryan Gosling, like all of the nicest people, is Canadian, and Dev Patel was born in Kenya, raised in London, and is here playing an Indian raised in Tasmania. So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. And if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts. They gave me three seconds to say this, so: An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work. But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. 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 modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda 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. O.K., go on with it. O.K., this brings me to the press. We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in the Constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the Committee to Protect Journalists, because we’re gonna need them going forward, and they’ll need us to safeguard the truth. One more thing: Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something — you know we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, “Isn’t it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?” Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be proud of the work Hollywood honors here tonight. As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, take your broken heart, make it into art.

2012 – Academy Award (Best Actress for “The Iron Lady”)
Oh my God. Oh come on. All right. Thank you so much, thank you thank you! When they called my name I had this feeling I could hear half of America going, “oh, no! Oh, come on why – her! Again!” But, whatever (laughter). First, I’m gonna thank Don, because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you’ve given me (applause). And, now, secondly, my other partner. Thirty-seven years ago, my first play in New York City, I met the great hairstylist and makeup artist Roy Helland. And we worked together pretty continuously since the day we clapped eyes on each other. His first film with me was “Sophie’s Choice” and all the way up to tonight when he won for his beautiful work in “The Iron Lady” thirty years later (applause). Every single movie in between. I just wanna thank Roy but also I wanna thank – because I really understand I’ll never be up here again (laughter) – I really wanna thank all my colleagues. All my friends. And I look out here, and I see my life before my eyes. My old friends, my new friends. And really, this is such a great honor, but the thing that counts the most with me is the friendships and the love and the sheer joy we have shared making movies together. My friends, thank you, all of you – departed and here – for this inexplicably wonderful career. Thank you so much. Thank you.

2012 – Berlin Film Festival Honorary Golden Bear
Jake Gyllenhaal: When I was asked to present the Honorary Golden Bear to Meryl Streep – one of the greatest actresses to ever grace the silver screen – I was surprised and flattered. After a number of days of pondering the opportunity, I came to the conclusion that ultimately this was a perfect time to resolve some personal issues between Meryl and I. Plus, I figured if I was gonna try and resolve some personal issues with the beloved two-time Academy Award winner, why not do it publicly. So, here goes. The world knows Meryl Streep as the most important figure in the history of acting, second only to Dyonisos, the Greek God of theater and infamous alcoholic. But I know her, perhaps more importantly, as Hank’s mom. Her son Henry and I have known each other since we were thirteen years old. And to be very frank, Meryl was not that fond of the thirteen year-old version of me. Back, way way back in the early 1990s, Hank and I were running around wearing baggy pants and listening to the rap artists of the day like, Warren G and Dr. Dre, and Snoop Doggy Dog, pretending to be gangsters. In truth, and it may come as a surprise to many of you in the audience, we actually were just a couple of wussies. But for some reason, Meryl didn’t tend to liking me, and didn’t really trust me with her son, and as we all know from her work, Meryl Streep has a real capazity to be terrifying. I mean we’ve all seen “The Devil Wears Prada”. That brought back such horrifying memories when I saw that movie (laughter). But the truth is, I thought her opinion on me would change, when I got older and graduated from baggy pants and the buttoned-up shirts and tighter jeans and Hank turned out to be this incredibly talented musician and I became a professional actor, so I assumed that all would be forgiven in her eyes. But, as it turned out, not much had changed. I would run into Meryl over the years and I would still feel that she thought I was the punk kid. And then, in a hopeful turn of events, I got to work with her on a film called “Rendition”. I thought, “this is gonna be great. We’re bond professionally. Actor to actor”. And I would finally have the opportunity to change her mind. Turns out that we had one scene together in the film – a phone conversation (laughter). And she wasn’t even on the set the day of filming. I had to act up to the tape recording of her voice, which – let me tell you though – it can still be intimidating even when it’s recorded. So, from that taped experience, I did begin to see why Meryl Streep is such an extraordinary actress. We go to the movies to be moved, but also to be entertained. When you watch Meryl Streep on screen, you sense somewhere on an unconscious level that she is enjoying herself. All of us want that in our jobs. We look for that in everything we do actually, whether you’re a plumber, a journalist or an actor, we are drawn to people, who find joy in what they do and who are grateful for the opportunity. When Meryl Streep is acting, she is grateful for the opportunity. And although she takes it incredibly serious, obviously, there is always a sense of joy. I think the best actors, the actors we love, the legends, they’re the ones who find real joy in their work. Meryl has done that time and time again throughout her career, even in painful performances, we can see it in “The Deer Hunter”, “Sophie’s Choice”, “Kramer vs. Kramer”, “Out of Africa”, “Silkwood”, “Adaptation”, recently in “Doubt”, “Julie and Julia” and “It’s Complicated”. I could go on and on. Even in her crappy movies, they are elevated by her presence (laughter). And of course this year there is “The Iron Lady”. Everything is at play in this performance. Power, emphathy, politics, intellect, strength, struggle, defiance, charm and – of course, as always with Meryl Streep – joy. For everything this profilic actress has done, and for the national and international treasure she is, I’m actually most impressed by how well she played the role of mother. I think children are reflections of the people who raise them, how engaged they are in the world, how they treat themselves and the people around them. They literally are representation of their parent’s hard work. The fact that Meryl has played both parts so well, as an actress and as a mother, that’s what makes her such an icon in my eyes. She’s an extraordinary mother, and an equally extraordinary actress. I can honestly say that I am grateful that she left such an indelible mark on me as a kid even if she scared the shit out of me sometimes. And the love that I feel for her tonight, here in Berlin, makes up for everything that I did as a thirteen year-old punk. If it doesn’t, I don’t care, she’s still the best there is. Ladies and Gentleman, it is my great honor to present the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement to the great, joyous Meryl Streep.

Meryl Streep:
(pointing to Gyllenhaal): He was a bad influence on my son. I remember the first time I met him and he and my son were pretending to be bartenders at his big sister Maggie’s birthday party — which was a cabaret in the basement of their house. They were serving cokes and lemonade, they said. They had little red suits on and fake mustaches, and I’m so glad to see that Jake can grow his own now. “But Jake Gyllenhaal is the son of the splendid screenwriter Naomi Fomer and director Stephen Gyllenhaal so he comes by his show business pedigree honestly. But he’s also inherited his parents’ grace and I thank him so much doing this for me.” Streep then started into one her characteristically classy and clever acceptance speeches. “The only reason I’m here tonight, truthfully,” she said, “is because of the inspired artistry of people that I’ve worked with. Many of whom are no longer here to receive my thanks. I think of Joseph Papp, Karel Reisz, Harold Pinter, Fred Zinneman, Alan Pakula, Sydney Pollack, Robert Altman… Some of the great writers and directors on whose shoulders I’ve been placed here tonight. I never forget how grateful I am for that. Streep then thanked her “Iron Lady” director Phyllida Lloyd (who was in attendance) and “all the other writers and directors who are still living after working with me.” “We all know how unfair it is that you do all the work, and I get all get the glory,” she said to a huge laugh from the audience. “But I’m grateful for every moment of inspiration you’ve given to me.” Streep paid tribute to the festival and “the great mecca of art that is the city of Berlin” before affectionately dedicating the honor to one man in the audience — Roy Helland, who has been Streep’s makeup and hair artist for decades. “Roy has worked with me since my first play in New York more than 35 years ago,” she said. “The first film we did together was ‘Sophie’s Choice.’ And he has designed every woman — and one man, in ‘Angels in America’ — that I’ve played every since then. And two nights ago, Roy won his first award — the BAFTA — for makeup and hair. Pretty soon you’ll see why he won.”

2012 – BAFTA Award (Best Actress for “The Iron Lady”)
Thank you so much. That couldn’t be worse (regarding her losing a shoe on her way up the podium). Oh gosh, somebody once said, I think it was Margaret Atwood. Actually, I always say it was Margaret Atwood but I don’t even know if she said this (laughter). But somebody once said, “the fade of the well-known is to be misunderstood”. And the ambition of this film, “The Iron Lady”, was to look at the life of the Iron Lady from the inside out. And to locate something real, maybe hidden, but truthful in the life of someone that we’ve all decided we all know everything about already. And I’m very proud of the film. And I owe so much to Phyllida Lloyd, Abi Morgan, Pathe, Damien Jones, for sticking with this, for asking, and expecting so much of me. I wanna thank the soulful Jim Broadbent, the divinely gifted Olivia Colman. My beloved moths, all three-hundred beautiful actors and crew that worked on this film. And to say that half of me is Streep, but the other half is Wilkinson from Lincolnshire, so I come by it honestly this part. Thank you very, very much. I’m so grateful.

2012 – Golden Globe (Best Actress in a Drama for “The Iron Lady”)
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Well, when Ricky Gervais’ deal fell through and they came to me to play Margaret Thatcher… (laughter). I can’t joke. This is such a thrill, but really, really embarrassing in a year that saw so many extraordinary performances by women in leading roles – by my friends, by people I don’t know. By people that I am so inspired by… Oh, shiii-it (points to her table), I’ve forgot my glasses. Oh, I’m gonna have to remember my speech (laughter). Okay, I’m gonna have to remember, but Glenn, Viola – oh my God I’m gonna leave people off – Michelle, Rooney, Gilda, yeah and how about Adepero Oduye, how about “Pariah” (applause)? How about Michelle, how about Mia Wasikowska in “Jane Eyre”? (applause). Fantastic! Tilda. Oh geez. Everybody I know I’m gonna leave you out. Anyone of these performances in any given year would have been a stand-out and an award winning peformance. But the fact that they all this year is really, really good news for all of us, because sometimes it seems that serious, challenging, weird movies are like exotic birds, near extinct birds, and every year a new flock flies in and somebody picks them up and gives them money and we get to see them. So, I just wanna thank my agent Kevin Huvane and God – Harvey Weinstein (laughter) – the punisher. Old testament, I guess? (laughter) Okay, I gotta thank everybody in England that let me come and trample all over their history. Especially, I’d like to thank Phyllida Lloyd (music starts to fade in) – oh, no! Abi Morgan, who wrote it, Damien Jones, who stayed with us for ten years. Oh, come on. All the cast and crew in England. We’ve made this for twenty-five cents in five minutes and I’m so proud of the film and I’m so, so, so grateful. And I love you, Viola. You’re my girl.

2010 – Golden Globe (Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for “Julie & Julia”)
Thank you. I wanna change my name to T-Bone (laughter). T-Bone Streep. I think it sounds good. Oh gosh. I, I’m gonna forget what I wanted to say, because I’m like overwrought. Darl, what was my first part? Yeah, I love Nora (laughter). I really am grateful to Nora and to everybody at Sony and Stanley, of course (applause) and everybody in the cast and crew. I just wanna say that I, in my long career, played so many extraordinary women that basically I’m getting mistaken for one. No really, I’m very clear about the fact that I’m the vessel for other people’s stories and other women’s lifes. And this year I got to play, not only one of the most beloved women in America, Julia Child, but I also got to secretly pay homage to my own personal, not so famous, hero. That’s my mother, who shared – who’s of the same generation as Julia – who shared her verve. Lot of the people in this room knew my mother and knew that she had a real joy in living and she just had no patience for gloom and doom. I’m not like that (laughter). I come to Golden Globes weekend. And I am really honestly conflicted how to have my happy movie self in the face of everything in that I’m aware of, in the real world. And I wanna say that that’s when I have my mother’s voice coming to me, saying ‘Partners in Health. Shoot some money to Partners in Health. Put the dress on. Put on a smile and be damn grateful that you have the dollars to help, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day’. I am really grateful. I am really grateful. So thank you!

2010 – Critics Choice Movie Award (Best Actress for “Julie & Julia”)
Thank you. God, oh my God. Oh my God. First, I wanna thank my husband who’s golfing! (laughter). But I’m sitting next to the head of Sony Pictures, so… (laughter). I’m really thrilled, I’m really really thrilled because I really love what I do. I love acting. And I love to work, and I love food, and I love sex (laughter). And so did Julia Child. So it wasn’t that much of a stretch, it was a stretch this way (pointing up). But, thank you Nora, thank you so much for writing and directing and producing and casting me in this great, this lovely story. Thank you to, oh gosh, everybody, thank you everybody at Sony, Amy Pascal, Howard for paying the bills. Thank you to Ann Roth, our costume designer, and my long-time colleague, Roy Helland, who’s worked with me for, like a 150 years, to create this look that looked like her but felt like me. And so that was really a great thing. And I wanna thank the embarassingly gifted Stanley Tucci (applause). He knows why (laughter). And, oh gosh, I’m so, we’re so lucky to do what we do. And to give back. And I hope we all do it this week. So I thank you all very much, I’m really, very grateful.

2010 – New York Film Critics Circle Award (Best Actress for “Julie & Julia”)
Thank you very much. Bronze age here. Yeah, they got the name right. Thank you very much! This is really the scariest thing in the world to do, is dinner in front of all the critics in New York and I thank you, Lynn (Redgrave, who presented the award to Meryl), for being willing to come down and do it at the absolute last minute, I’m very very grateful to you for doing that. Oh God, stand really straight. I’m really moved by this, because a lot of you, some of you, older members, have looked at my movies for 30 years. And the fact that you’re willing to put your head down in the desk and raise your hand – however you vote (laughter) – for me, I’m just really touched. You know, that you’re not trying to deport me or something. Because it’s been a long time that you’re looking at the same face. And I’m grateful for your willingness to see a new one each time up, it’s getting harder and harder to do. I’d like to thank a lot of people, but, hm… first I’d like to thank Eric Steel for buying Julie Powell’s first book. And I’d like to thank Amy Robinson for having the great idea of combining it with Julia Child’s memoirs. And I’d like to thank my friend Nora Ephron for making such a meal of it, and for writing, directing, producing and practically catering with all buttery. And I’d like to thank SONY and Amy Pascal for sending me to real Paris. Unlike FOX on “The Devil Wears Prada” (laughter), who sent me mid-town – so I had, like, pretend. It was really hard (laughter). And I’d like to thank the great Stanley Tucci for the fact that he is big. And I’d like to thank Kevin Huvane, my agent, and Scott Rudin for basically keeping me happy and working. Not necessarily in that order. And thank you Andrew Sarris (a writer) for the “Shout-Ouch” – you have no idea! Okay, I’ll get off. There’s one other thing: It’s been a great year for women over 50. And it’s been a great year for women over a 150 if you know what I mean (laughter).

2009 – Rome International Film Festival (Golden Marc’Aurelio Acting Award)
Thank you, thank you so much… two microphones (laughs). Uulalala. I apologise for not speaking Italian as Helen Mirren but, Helen, (in response to Miss Mirren’s previous speech in which she mentioned inspiring Italian actresses) don’t forget Senta Berger, Giulietta Masina, Silvana Mangano and the madonna of all the actresses, Eleonora Duse, everyone italian!! I have to speak english. At this moment in my life after being an actress for… ok, 30 years, more than 30 years, having paid off all my students loans, all I feel is gratitude, really, that’s all I feel (applause). Because an actor is nothing but a listener and a talker, so we need the writer, we need the director, we need you, young writers and directors and producers, people who find the money, we need each other, other actors… so I’m not here by myself, I’m here with all the fantastic people who have led me by the hand to this moment, including my parents, my husband who made it possible to have this amazing career (applause) and all my friends living and gone… so thank you very much.

2009 – Screen Actors Guild Award (Female Actor in a Leading Role for “Doubt”)
Thank you everybody! I didn’t even buy a dress! (laughter) I’m really really really shocked, and even though awards mean nothing to me anymore (laughter). I’m really happy. I wanna thank, oh so many people, Miramax, Daniel Battsek, and especially Scott Rudin who just goes out of his way to find interesting things for everybody to do – especially the girls. And, can I just say… there is no such thing as the Best Actress. There is no such thing as the greatest living actress, I’m in a position where I have secret information, you know, that I know this to be true (laughter). I am so in awe of the work of the women this year – nominated, not nominated – so proud of us, girls (applause). And everybody wins when we get parts like this. Thank you to John Patrick Shanley for writing this amazing piece. Thank you to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is just the most fun to work with and the most.. he’s just such a great example to all of us of how to live your work with integrity and imagination, every time, every time out! Thank you to the glorious Amy Adams, so funny, so real. The gigantically gifted Viola Davis. My God somebody give her a movie! Oh, wow, I’m sure I’ve forgotten everybody, Joseph Foster, all the kids, Helen Stenborg, Alice Drummond, all the cast. Thank you to the sisters of Charity, thank you sister Peggy, big hug everybody there. Your love and your work is so inspiring, was so inspiring to all of us. Okay, I gotta get off, but thank you so much. I really do appreciate this. Thank you actors! Love you!

2008 – National Movie Awards (Performance Female for “Mamma Mia”)
Oh thank you very much. Thank you very much (audience screams ‘we love you’) Aw I love you, too, man. I’m so happy. This is the greatest award because it sort of throws it into the teeths of the critics (applause). And it says that you love the movie and I love the movie and I’m so glad you did. That’s why we made it and I wanna thank Judy Kraymer and Phillida Lloyd and Catherine Johnson for making me an honorary Dynamo (applause). And I also wanna thank Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson for these generous and buoyant songs that have just kept me dancing way way way beyond the point where I should be in front of people. But thank you so much. Thank you I love you all!

2007 – Golden Globe (Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, “The Devil Wears Prada”)
(Entering the stage and talking to Miss Golden Globe, Jack Nicholson’s daughter) Thank you! (Applause) Thank you. Thank you very much. I told Lorraine she came to a birthday party at my house in Beverly Hills with snakes… we had snakes! (Laughter) But then we moved back east. (Laughter) Oh my God, thank you everybody, thank you so much, I’m really thrilled. I think I worked with everybody in the room. (Laugther) Yes I have… (Meryl pulls out an acceptance speech) I’m gonna forget everything, I know… (refering to the audience) Oh shut up it’s not that long. (Laughter). First of all, congratulations to the nominees in all the categories for Best Actress, it’s like a million categories for Best Actress – but Annette and Toni and Beyonce and Renée, Penelope, Judi, Maggie and Helen and Kate, I just want you to know, all of you, that this is been such a fun year to watch movies because of you gals. (Applause) And it makes you wanna cry with graditude – until next year! (Laughter) I just wanna thank David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna for this sparkling script, its really sharp, smart direction made it just a pleasure. And thanks to Wendy Finerman and Carla Hackman and Elizabeth Gabler and Karen Rosenfelt for sheparding us through. Thank you for Tommy Rothman who signs the cheques and Rupert who signs his cheques. (Laughter). And thank you to Pat Field and Molly and Nina and the people in warderobe because that was like special effects for us! And… oh gosh, everybody. Delicious Emily Blunt, (throws her a kiss), darling! Darling Annie Hathaway, dreadful Stanley Tucci (Laughter). For the difficult job they had making me seem monstrous, anyway (Laughter). I just, I wanna thank everbody, especially everybody at FOX that let us donate all those clothes to “Equality Now” and Breast Cancer Research and Dress for Success (Applause), that was really classy! Totally great! And finally I just wanna say, the reason you could see “The Devil Wears Prada” is because it was playing on every theatre screen across America – and that was because they were playing it. And, if you can’t see “Little Children” or “Pan’s Labyrinth” or “The Queen” or… eh, all these great movies that I’ve just seen, “Volver”, “Notes on a Scandal”, “Sherrybaby” then you have to go down to your theater manager and ask him “why” (Applause). ‘Cause its amazing how much you can get if you quietly, clearly and authoritatively demand it! (Laughter) That’s all.

2004 – Primetime Emmy Award (Best Actress in a Miniseries, “Angels in America”)
Oh boy, thank you! (sighs) You know there are some days when I myself think I’m overrated… (laughter) – but not today! (laughter and applause). I’m sorry, I know Glenn [Close] is my friend, she’ll forgive me and Helen Mirren is an acting-god and nobody has put a performance on film better than Judi Davis in “The Judy Garland Story” and… (applause) the only one of the group is Emma Thompson, who will hold a grudge for the rest of her life! … but who cares? (laughter). Oh I have so many people to thank, mostly Mike Nichols, my master and commander, you know my king. And Al Pacino and all the boys, Ben, Patrick, Justin, thank you so much for everything you gave me (music fades in)… Oh and I can sing this just as weeeell… (laughter). But Tony Kushner, the bravest thing in the world is that writer that sits alone in a room and works out his grief, his rage, his imagination and his deep desire to make people laugh. And he makes the work of art and then transforms the world with the truth, because that’s all we want – you know that’s all we need! Thank you! Thank you very much!

2004 – AFI Life Achivement Award
Thank you thank you thank you… oh… (takes a bow in front of the audience). Can’t we just do this every year?! (laughter) I’m exhausted, imagine how you must feel! Thank you thank you, that’s too small a word… actually, two small words (laughter). You know this is really overwhelming and I wish I were her, I really do! (laughter) Oh my god, Catherine O’Hara, geez! (points to actress Catherine O’Hara in the audience, her co-star from “Heartburn”). You know there’s everybody I love in this room, I can’t stand it – and my lovely friends who said, you know, mostly nice things about me, even if you didn’t mean it, nobody knows that! (laughter) I’d like to thank the AFI, I am so honored… I mean to stand up here with my idols and just thank you for supporting the work of women filmmakers, I mean… it’s a great thing! And the more these stories are valued the more we will see them in the movies. Thank you Don, you know for… you know (laughs), it’s just unbelievable what you’ve put up with and for your constancy and your great strength and you gorgeous… DNA! (laughter) which gave me the four biggest prizes of my life. I really wanna thank the people who aren’t here, not because they didn’t want to, but because they are in heaven… and without them I wouldn’t be able to make this silly speech, so I wanna thank my mother and my father (applause), who were the funniest and the saddest and most musical, gorgeous, weird, strong personalities who fought with each other for sixty years and taught me everything I know about drama (laughter). And… ehm, Isaac Mizrahi for the dress (laughs). Thank you everybody, thank you my friends, thank you everybody that spoke and… oh I’ll get off… my God! I’m so proud of this and grateful and… I hope it’s not the end (laughter). Thank you very very much!

2004 – Screen Actors Guild Award (Best Actress in a Mini-Series, “Angels in America”)
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’d like to thank Carrie… Carrie, Colin and Chris, and all at HBO, for raising the bar for humanity on what we’re allowed to show. Uncomfortable truths, homosexual youth, middle-aged heterosexual glory, Al Pacino’s face, Emma Thompson’s grace, Tony Kushner’s incomparable story. Forgiving Mike Nichols, a truckload of shekels to bring this sweet tale to the masses. Of rose-lipped maidens and light-foot lads, and how quickly all of it passes. If anyone’s biting his cuticles, ow… lest I say anything political now, I’m only an actor, this isn’t the factor. God forbid I should seen hypercritical, but it is a fact, I’ve been lucky to act with gratitude and joy, in this story of love that shone down from above on the life of a dying boy. Thank you, Tony, for writing this beautiful piece, “Angels in America.” And thank you actors, friends, many of whom I’ve worked with, all of whom I’ve very grateful for this wonderful statuette… and honor. Thank you very much. [applause]

2004 – Golden Globe (Best Actress in a Mini-Series, “Angels in America”)
Thank you! I just realised you can see completely through my dress, so now I’m standing with them together (laughter). To even me it seems like I’m never leaving this stage. I really wanna just thank Colin and Cary and everybody at HBO for putting their money where their … brains are and to Cary Brokaw, who stayed with this project for 14 years and finally saw it through so beautifully. And to my magnificent Mike Nichols, in London, thank you thank you for casting me in this your crowing achievement of your already astonishing career. And I’d like to thank Kevin Huvane, my agent, because Tim Robbins forgot to thank his agent (laughter) So… (laughs) and I’m sure he thanks his agent, too (laughter). And I’d like to thank my colleague and friend of 25 years, Roy Helland, my hair and makeup man, who continues to do his best to destory my natural good looks (laughter). I’d like to thank the beautiful cast, ehm, James Cromwell, Justin Kirk, Mary-Louise Parker, Al Pacino, Ben Shenkman, eeehmm, fabulous Emma Thompson, wish you were here, Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Whright, and finally I’d like to thank the seringly gifted Tony Kushner, whose compassion and rage and love gave birth to this Angels’ eye-view of what we all can be in America. And, ehm, I just wanna say that I don’t think the two biggest problems in America are that too many people wanna commit their lives to one another “til death do us part” and steroids in sports, I don’t think those are our two biggest problems. That’s all, thank you very much!

2003 – César Award (Lifetime Achievement Award)
I have to… thank you. I have to read, forgive me, because I can’t memorize, yet, in French. With all my apologies to my French colleagues, and to the French country in general, and in a spirit of collaboration and of international understanding, I’ll try to give you this speech in my hesitating french of schoolgirl. Ok. If inadvertently, I pronounce, or say something weird, inept, or vulgar, I beg you to blame the American person in me. This could make me more interesting or flaming than I am, in reality. Ok, I’m done. I had always wanted to give the stories of women, who are rather difficult. Difficult to love, difficult to understand (like now), difficult to watch at times, or difficult to define. I’m very grateful to the French audience for having received these women, complicated and contradictory. As an actress, I have understood for a longtime that a lie is easier, more seducing, and easier to tell. But the truth is always very, very, very complicated. Often unpleasant, composed with different shades, or difficult to accept. We live in a very complicated world now, and it’s time to accept to be told this difficult truth. I hope you understood me. Thank you for according me this award, which rewards the work of my life, which means so much to me. I’m sincerly grateful and very, very honoured. Thank you.

2003 – Golden Globe Award (Best Supporting Actress for “Adaptation”)
Oh stop! Oh my God! I’ve just been nominated 789 times (laughter) and I was getting so settled over there for a long winter’s nap! (laughter). Oh God, oh I didn’t have anything prepared because it’s been like since the pleistocine era that I won anything (laughter). Oh goodness… Ok, mmhh… Yoga… I’m really so thrilled and so happy to have been able to work with this amazing group of youngsters over here… in “Adaptation”. The prediciousley talented Nic Cage, the graceful and so gifted Chris Cooper (applause). It’s because of them I’m here and of course Spike and Susan Orlean, that I apologize… you know for… the second half. And to Charlie Kaufmann, who tried very hard to adapt your book, Susan. And it’s such a beautiful job, it’s just an amazing film and I’m so glad. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

1990 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Motion Picture Actress)
Thank you very much. I’m not really a blonde (laughter). Well some parts, about from here down. I’m so thrilled to get this award from Jane [Fonda] because we were in “Julia” together, that was my very first film, and I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. And she sort of took me under her wing and she said, ‘Meryl, you’re out of the light. Move over’. And I learned how to find it. And she very kindly talked about me when she got home to Hollywood, so that people knew about me, which is such a generous thing to do and I wanna thank you for that, I never really did, in a public way (applauds to Jane Fonda). I’ve been in a lot of movies and some of them I’ve been lucky have been hits, but a lot of them have been, what you’d call, critically acclaimed (laughter), and this award is confirmation of my work – I take it as confirmation of my work in all of them. And I thank you very much for that, because I believed in everything I’ve done for one reason or another, and I think it’s nice to send a signal to the guys who finance movies that there is an audience for the smaller, more challenging, maybe more difficult films. So I thank you very much!

1990 – People’s Choice Award (World Favorite Motion Picture Actress)
Thanks again. I’d like to say to all the people in the world: Dankeschön. Arigatou. Merci Beaucoup. I got a lot of flag for doing all those accents, but it comes in handy, you know. I would like to thank, really my husband, Don, who’s the reason I draw a breath and my children, Henry, Mamie, and Gracie. Henry has been to school in New York; London; Dallas; Nairobi, Kenya, Australia; Salisbury, Connecticut; and now, Los Angeles, and the bravery and the good nature with what he walks into his new class is what lets me go to work happy, and I think you kids for doing that for me. Thank you very much.

1989 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Actress in a Dramatic Motion Picture)
Thank you very much everybody that participated in the People’s Choice poll. I’m really thrilled to receive this especially this year because my film, A Cry In The Dark, hasn’t really been widely distributed or promoted and I’m hopeful that this will make an opportunity for theater owners to get it in and let people see it so I’m really, really grateful for this award. And I’d also like to thank Amy Archerd and all the People’s Choice people for letting me accept this by remote. My little boy just made it into the hockey championships and the playoffs are Sunday night and this will let me be there screaming my head off, embarrassing him to death, and I’m very grateful for being there. It’s real important to me. So, thank you and I hope you have as great a time tonight as I am having. Thanks.

1987 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Motion Picture Actress)
Meryl Streep accepted her award via satellite: Oh, thank you Lynn [Redgrave, who presented the award], very very much. Thank you. Thank you. I’m very sorry that I can’t be there in California to get this in person. But I’m making a film up here in Albany and they wouldn’t let me off to come to the party. But I just do wanna thank all the people who participated in the pole, and Amy Archerd, hair in my eyes, and to say that how extremely happy and very, very proud I am to receive it. Thank you.

1986 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Motion Picture Actress)
Thank you. Thank you very much. I am very, very happy and proud to receive this award. Next to being in a play and hearing whether or not they clap at the end, it’s really the only way a movie actor has of knowing whether you’re doing something right or not, and I’m very, very grateful and I’d like to thank everybody that participated in the poll, and I’d like to really thank Sydney Pollack for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime to go halfway around the world and be in his beautiful film, Out Of Africa. Thank you very much.

1986 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Female Entertainer)
I’m totally flabbergasted! My husband says, you know, I don’t even know how much entertaining I’ve done. I got– I haven’t even had anybody over for coffee in 18 months, okay? We got the all-around right though, I’ll tell you. I’m just totally thrilled and really surprised by this and very, very, very happy. So thank you very much.

1985 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Motion Picture Actress)
Meryl Streep accepted her award via satellite from the set of “Out Of Africa”: Thank you. Thank you Sidney [Pollack]. Oh, gosh. This is the last thing that I ever thought that happen to me at the foot of the, in Gong Hills, to be hand one of these. I thank you very, very much. I’m sorry I’m not able to be there to receive in person but it’s a wonderful surprise. Thank you.

1984 – People’s Choice Award (Favorite Actress)
Meryl Streep accepted her award via satellite: Hello, Jane [Fonda, who presented the award]. Thank you very much. It’s nice to know that you’re finally moving over to let somebody else win this award. I just wanna say that I’m sitting here in New York on location for a film. It’s sleeting outside, a hundred degrees below zero, it’s sleeting and miserable. And I’d really love to be in southern California to accept this in person, but I hope you’ll accept my thanks long distance. I’m a little too neurotic to sit in the back of a theater and wait to see how people feel about my movies. I’m so afraid they’ll laugh in the serious parts or sleep through the parts that are supposed to be funny. But, this is the tangible proof of your approval and it’s very gratifying to me. Although I’ll probably have to do the work out tape for 6 months to be able to lift it so, thank you. Thank you very much.

1983 – Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role for “Sophie’s Choice”)
Oh boy, no matter how much you try to imagine what this is like, it’s just so incredibly thrilling right down your toes. I have a lot of people to thank and I’m going to be one of those people that tries to mention a lot of names because I know, just two seconds ago, my mother and father went completely bezerk (laughter), and I’d like to give some other mothers and fathers that opportunity. I’d like to thank William Styron for creating this beautiful character… and Alan Pakula for bringing it to the stage and allowing me to play it. I would like to thank Marty Starger and […] for finding the financing for us, Nestor Almendros – a great cinematographer, Albert Wolsky – wonderful costumer – and the crew, Tommy Priestley, the Gerados, the DeBlau Brothers, Tommy Prate, Chris Newman, Danny Maitlin, Wally Probs, Lilian, Alba, Dixie, Roy Helland, ehm (giggles)… I’d like to thank my Polish coach, Elaina Baco, my German coaches – Ann Katanio and David Friedman, and the 37 members of the American and European cast – whom I won’t mention (laughs) all of their names, but for two. I feel like I owe them this because everything that I had I got from looking in their eyes. And for the great love they gave me for five months I thank Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol (applause, Meryl throws a kiss into the audience) – and I thank you all very much!

1980 – Academy Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role for “Kramer vs. Kramer”)
Holy Mackerel! (laughter) I’d like to thank Dustin Hoffman and Robert Benton to whom I owe this. Stanley Jaffe for giving me the chance to play Joanna and… Jane Alexander and Justin [Henry] for the love and support during this very very delightful experience. Thank you.