WATCH: Meryl Streep calls out Trump, asks for empathy during Golden Globes speech

Meryl Streep  was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards, but used her time on stage to make a point about empathy and diversity.

>> UPDATE: Donald Trump on Meryl Streep's Golden Globes speech: She's a 'Hillary lover'

As she took to the stage to give her acceptance speech, she broke down the components of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which conducts the Golden Globe Awards.

>> Read more trending stories

"What is Hollywood anyway?" Streep asked, pointing out the varied backgrounds from which some of the night's nominees come from, including Viola Davis, who presented Streep with the award, Sarah Paulson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Adams.

"And where are their birth certificates?" Streep said, seemingly in a jab to President-elect Donald Trump's past birther comments toward President Obama.

Related: 2017 Golden Globes: Winners list

Streep then mentioned actors Natalie Portman, Ruth Negga, Ryan Gosling and Dev Patel in reference to the foreign competent of the HFPA

"So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick them all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial art, which are not the arts."

Streep said one performance last year was stunning -- "not because it was good -- there was nothing good about it," referring to Trump's mockery of a reporter who has a mental disability.

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 the privilege, power and the capacity to fight back… I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life.

This instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, filters down into everybody's life because it gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence invites violence and the powerful use their position to bull others, we all lose.

Streep then turned to the press, saying, "We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage, That's why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution."

Streep closed her speech by quoting the late Carrie Fisher, saying, "Take your broken heart, make it into art."

Watch Streep's full speech below:

About the Author