Chronology: 2017
Meryl Streep uses her Golden Globes speech to speak out against President Trump, receiving everything from praise and hate to a movie role by Steven Spielberg. Co-starring Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, Streep plays Katharina Graham in the weeks leading up to the Watergate scandal.
When receiving the Golden Globe’s Cecil B. DeMille Award in January 2017, she chose to speak about one topic and one topic only – Donald Trump’s treatment of freedom of speech, freedom of press and his treatment of disabled people. Trump was elected President for only two months, and Streep was the first actor in Hollywood to not only speak about the election, but criticize his actions (which, in hindsight, was only the beginning). She received much applause from her Hollywood peers, and was at the receiving end of endless online harrassment by Trump supporters – and even the President himsel, calling Streep a “most-overrated actress”. The Streep-treatment, as I like to call it was a watershed moment on the one hand, and a clear sign towards Hollywood actors to not play with fire if they want to sell movies. As celebrated as Streep was for speaking her mind, not many have followed her way to endanger their income by speaking their minds. In the end, Hollywood had to suffer a much bigger blow by the end of the year when The New York Times published explosive allegations against Harvey Weinstein, sending an avalanche through the industry and creating what might be the biggest achievement of this decade for women in the workplace – the #Metoo movement.
In what has been a whirlwind in the last three years of this decade, Streep pulled out maybe her best performance of the last 10 years in Steven Spielberg’s “The Post”. Spielberg read the screenplay and decided to direct the film as soon as possible, citing that “when I read the first draft of the script, this wasn’t something that could wait three years or two years — this was a story I felt we needed to tell today.” “The Post” started filming in May 2017 and was released by December of the same year! Both Hanks and Streep received critical acclaim for their performances. The film received two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Actress.
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