Meryl Streep Delivers Powerful Cecil B. DeMille Award Speech at 2017 Golden Globe Awards

Meryl Streep was honored for her outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, accepting the 2017 Cecil B. DeMille Award with a powerful speech.

The prestigious award was a fitting honor for Streep, who has been nominated for over 30 Golden Globe awards throughout her career, which is more than any woman or man has received in the show’s history. An an eight-time Golden Globe winner, the Florence Foster Jenkins star won for The Iron Lady in 2011, Julie & Julia in 2009, The Devil Wears Prada in 2006, Angels in America in 2003, Adaptation in 2002, Sophie’s Choice in 1982, The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1981 and Kramer vs. Kramer in 1979.

Streep was presented with the award by her Doubt costar Viola Davis, who joked about Streep’s criticism of her cooking and her probing questions before noting that Streep is an “observer and a thief.”

“She makes the most heroic characters vulnerable, the most known familiar, the most despised relatable,” Davis said. “Her artistry reminds us of the impact of what it means to be an artist.”

“You make me proud to be an artist,” she continued. “You make me feel that what I have in me, my body, my face, my age, is enough.”

Davis’ speech was followed by a montage of Streep’s work, with clips of the actress in a number of movies spanning her decades-long career.

When Streep arrived on stage to accept the award, she was visibly emotional, telling a standing audience to “Please sit down” before ruminating on the meaning of the Hollywood Foreign Press, first noting that she and so many other actors came from very different places and that Hollywood is therefore made up of foreigners.

Streep then spoke about president-elect Donald Trump, discussing the moment Trump imitated a disabled reporter during his election campaign and delivering a powerful statement about what that type of behavior means.

“This instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, it filters down into everybody’s life, ’cause it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same,” she said.

“Disrespect invites disrespect,” she added. “When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”

Streep also discussed the press, asking the Hollywood Foreign Press and others to join her in a committee to protect journalists. Growing emotional, Streep ended her speech with a quote from her friend, the late Carrie Fisher.

“My friend, the dear departed Princess Leia said to me, “Take your broken heart and make it into art.’”

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This article originally appeared on Womanista.com