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HOLLYWOOD INSIDER

Actress-activist pairs at the Golden Globes and the #TimesUp movement


Los Angeles — It was not all fluff and glamour at the recently concluded 75th Golden Globe Awards, as top actresses used the red carpet to make a social statement. 

So the typical red carpet question — who are you wearing? — turned into: Who are you bringing?

Former Cecile B. DeMille awardee Meryl Streep whose very memorable speech went viral right after the ceremony last year, led other Hollywood actresses in bringing their activist friends to the Globes. She brought Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance director) as her date that night.

 

Hollywood Insider Golden Globes Meryl Streep and activist Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance director. Photo: Filbert D. Kung
Meryl Streep and activist Ai-jen Poo, National Domestic Workers Alliance director. Photo: Filbert D. Kung

Other activists-actresses pairs included Michelle Williams, who brought #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke; Emma Watson, brought Marai Larasi (Executive Director of Imkaan, a Black-feminist organization); Amy Poehler, Saru Jayaraman (president of the Restaurant Opportunities Center & ROC Action); Susan Sarandon, Rosa Clemente (organizer, political commentator and independent journalist).

READ: An insider's look at the Golden Globes 2018

Emma Stone brought tennis champion Billie Jean King (founder of the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation and Women’s Tennis Association) while Laura Dern was accompanied by Monica Ramirez (daughter and granddaughter of migrant farm workers); finally, Shailene Woodley brought Calina Lawrence (member of the Suquamish Tribe).

 

Hollywood Insider golden Globes Michele Williams and MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke. Photo: Flibert D. Kung Michele Williams and MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke. Photo: Flibert D. Kung

Those who didn't bring their activist friends showed their solidarity and support for the sisterhood by wearing black gowns and/or wearing #TimesUp pins.

Some of those who came in full black force like an army getting ready for battle included of course, the current Cecile B DeMille Awardee Oprah Winfrey, Viola Davis, Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrera, Ashley Judd, Halle Berry, a preggy Eva Longoria, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Aniston, Carol Burnett, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Salma Hayek, Tracee Ellis Ross, Nicole Kidman, Helen Mirren, Mary J. Blige, Natalie Portman, Penelope Cruz, and Angelina Jolie with her human rights activist friend-writer Loung Ung and her son Pax.

But you might be wondering: What is the Times Up campaign?

Basically, it is a campaign driven by women to address the systemic power imbalances that have kept underrepresented groups from reaching their full potential.

 

Amy Poehler and Saru Jarayaman. Photo courtesy of Janet Nepales/HFPA
Amy Poehler and Saru Jarayaman. Photo courtesy of Janet Nepales/HFPA

Prior to its formal launch this year, Time’s Up has already raised more than $13 million from over 200 donors for the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund to help defray costs for lawyers and communications professionals from across the country to provide assistance to those who experience sexual harassment.

Founding donors include Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Capshaw, Shonda Rhimes, Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams, among others.

The launch of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund early this year is the second action from the Time’s Up community.

In mid-December, entertainment industry executives, independent experts and advisors came together to create the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the workplace, chaired by Anita Hill.

The Commission, which the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) is supporting as well, is committed to a comprehensive approach to replacing abuse of power, mistreatment and silence with accountability, respect and opportunity.

Former Golden Globe winner Viola Davis talked to us about women in Hollywood finding their voices. She said, “I am going to quote the most watched TED Talk online person, Brene Brown, and she wrote:

‘Braving the Wilderness and the Gift of Imperfection.’ And what she says is that there’s no other way to live but to be vulnerable and to own your story. It’s the only way to live.  You either choose that or you choose death.

'What is happening with women is that we are giving each other permission to make ourselves known.  For so many years, what has happened and you see it a lot in Hollywood, certainly I have even been guilty of it so I am not judging, is that we put on a mask of acceptance, of being pretty enough to be valued, making our voice higher, that is a big one. Watering down who we are because we are afraid of not being nice, apologizing for being too ambitious, too angry, too whatever.

'What is happening now, is that people are being encouraged to say, this is who I am.  All of it, I am going to leave it all on the floor.  This is who I am. This is what I look like in the morning and this is when I was sexually abused. This is what happened and I felt it was my fault and I felt dirty. But no more. It caused me this amount of anger and now I am married and I am learning how to love and I am learning to own it all.

'And the understanding, the owning it all, is connecting us.  We are starting to get it.  There’s no way to encapsulate it into one kind of snazzy statement except for that.  I know that because I spent most of my life being ashamed of everything.  Everything.  Being ashamed of being too dark, having a deep voice, not being a size two, apologizing for everything. 

'Being ashamed of everything, until I realized that there’s an expiration date on life and there is no U-Haul on the back of a hearse.  So at some point, you have got to own the fact that this is your life. This is it. No holds barred.  I was one of the women who said ‘#MeToo’ on my status.  I felt that it was important for me to say it.  Because I happen to think that everybody is watching me.  I can either use it to puff myself up, or I can use it to instill power and life force in other women and be an instrument of change'.”

— LA, GMA News