Meryl Streep has replied to US President Donald Trump's comment, where he deemed the Oscar-winning actress "over-rated", following her speech at the Golden Globes award ceremony last month.
Streep said: "Yes, I'm the most overrated and over decorated actress".
The actress made the remarks while speaking at the Human Rights Campaign's 2017 Greater New York Gala Dinner on Saturday, according to variety.com.
Assailing Trump as bellicose and thin-skinned, mounting a rousing defence of LGBTQ freedoms, and bucking up a crowd that might have been otherwise dejected by America's rightward turn towards conservatism, Streep argued that Trump's election imperils gay rights, women's rights, and other civil rights.
"If you think people got mad when they thought the government was coming after their guns, wait until they come and try to take away our happiness," Streep said to a two-minute long standing ovation.
"We're not going to go back to the bad old days of ignorance and oppression and hiding who we are.
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"We owe it to the people who have died for our rights, and who have died before they even got their own."
Streep, who received the gay rights organisation's Ally for Equality Award, said that critics of the new President have one thing to be grateful for.
"If we live through this precarious moment," she said.
"If (Trump's) catastrophic instinct to retaliate doesn't lead us to nuclear winter, we will have much to thank our current leader for. He will have woken us up to how fragile freedom is."
Streep slammed Trump while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment" at the 74th Golden Globe Awards on January 8.
Trump later lashed out on Twitter, calling Streep an overrated actress.
In the event, Streep reflected on gay and transgender teachers who helped foster her love of the arts and of theatre.
At one point, she broke in song to treat the audience at the New York City gala to a rendition of the Emma Lazarus sonnet that lies at the base of the statue of liberty, saying the words were taught to her by a transgender teacher during a field trip.
Streep closed her speech with a call to arms for the people who may feel dispossessed and upset over Trump's election.
"We have the right to live our lives, with God or without, as we choose," Streep said.
"There is a prohibition against the establishment of a state religion in our constitution, and we have the right to choose with whom we live, whom we love, and who and what gets to interfere with our bodies. As Americans, men, women, people, gay, straight, LGBTQ. All of us have the human right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
--IANS
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