Golden Globes 2018: Most political moments

This year’s Golden Globes were political before they even began. In protest of Hollywood’s culture of sexual harassment, women and men wore black to the Globes, many of them accessorizing their raven wardrobe with enamel pins supporting the Time’s Up initiative, a movement launched by hundreds of women in Hollywood calling for change. "The question tonight isn't 'who are you wearing?' but 'why are you wearing black?'" E! red carpet host Giuliana Rancic said at the top of the show, and she and other interviewers made a clear effort to #AskHerMore.

In addition to wearing black, some A-list actresses brought activists as their guests, including Emma Watson, who attended with Marai Larasi, executive director of the British feminist network Imkaan; Meryl Streep, who walked the carpet with Ai-Jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; and Michelle Williams, who brought Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement. "You may think we're here because I was nominated for something, but that's really not the case," Williams, nominated for her performance in All the Money in the World, told Ryan Seacrest on the carpet. "You know why we're here? We're here because of Tarana."

To donate to the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which will provide subsidized legal support to women and men in all industries who have experienced sexual harassment, assault, or abuse in the workplace, visit its GoFundMe page. Learn more about Time’s Up, an organization of women in entertainment combating sexual harassment and inequality, on its website.

The 75th annual Golden Globes were political right out of the gate. “It’s 2018! Marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn’t!” host Seth Meyers said at the top of the show to enormous applause. He didn’t dance around the hot topics of the night — sexual misconduct and inequality in Hollywood — in his opening monologue, working in digs at Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and Harvey Weinstein, whom he called "the elephant not in the room." But he promised Weinstein will be back in 20 years to become "the first person to ever be booed during the In Memoriam." He moved on to the president as well, observing that the name of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association could only be better “designed to infuriate our president” if it were the “Hillary Mexico Salad Association.”

Nicole Kidman continued her hot streak and collected the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Limited Series, for her performance in HBO’s Big Little Lies. She began by thanking her costars Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, and Zoë Kravitz: “This is ours to share,” she said to her collaborators. “Wow, the power of women!” She continued in that vein, thanking her mother Janelle, “an early advocate for the women’s movement,” and then spoke out against domestic abuse (much like she did when she accepted her Emmy for the same role in September). “The character that I played represents something that is at the center of our conversation right now: abuse,” the Oscar winner said. “I do believe and I hope that we can elicit change through the stories we tell and the way we tell them. Let’s keep the conversation alive. Let’s do it.”

The Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale has proven more disturbingly relevant in our current political environment than the author could have possibly imagined three decades ago. When winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her performance, Elisabeth Moss honored the author and other women who have spoken out against injustice. “This is from Margaret Atwood: ‘We were the people who were not in the papers, we lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories,’” the actress read. “Margaret Atwood, this is for you and all of the women who came before you and after you, who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice, and to fight for equality and freedom in the world. We no longer live in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. We no longer live in the gaps between the stories. We are the story, in print, and we are writing the story ourselves.”

The HFPA’s lifetime achievement honor, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, went to Oprah Winfrey this year, and the megastar accepted the accolade with a predictably powerful speech. She opened with a childhood memory — of watching Sidney Poitier win Best Actor at the Oscars in 1964. “I remember his tie was white and his skin was black, and I’d never seen a black man be celebrated like that,” she said. “In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B. DeMille Award right here at the Golden Globes, and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given the same award.”

She thanked the HFPA and took the opportunity to celebrate the press as a whole. “The press is under siege these days, but we also know that it is the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice, to tyrants and victims and secrets and lies,” Winfrey said. “I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times. Which brings me to this: What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have. I’m especially proud and inspired by all the women who felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories.”

Winfrey then turned the spotlight onto one such woman who bravely spoke out: Recy Taylor, who was raped in the street by a group of white men in Alabama in 1944 and who died 10 days ago. “She lived, as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak the truth of the power of those men — but their time is up,” she said. “Their time is up!”

The room exploded, but Oprah wasn’t finished. “I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon,” she said in closing. “And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women — many of whom are right here in this room tonight — and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”

After stars Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, and Alexander Skarsgård all won Globes for their performances in Big Little Lies, the show itself took home the big one, for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. The series' producer and star Reese Witherspoon took the podium to accept the award and say a special thank-you. “This show is so much about how the life we present to the world is so very different than the life we live behind closed doors,” she said. “I want to thank everyone who spoke up this year and spoke up about abuse and harassment — you are so brave. And hopefully, shows like this, more will be made, so people out there who are feeling silenced by harassment, discrimination, abuse… Time is up. We hear you. We see you. And we will tell your stories.”

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri picked up the last two awards of the night, and Best Actress in a Drama winner Frances McDormand — after celebrating the fact that the HFPA “managed to elect a female president” — used her time in the spotlight to acknowledge this moment in Hollywood. “I keep my politics private, but it was really great to be in this room tonight, and to be a part of a tectonic shift in our industry’s power structure,” the actress said. “Trust me: the women in this room tonight are not here for the food. We are here for the work.”

Barbra Streisand, the only woman to have ever won the Golden Globe for Best Director (for 1983’s Yentl), presented the final award of the night, for Best Motion Picture, Drama. The announcer shared this detail of Babs’ resume as she walked out to the podium, and before she opened the envelope, she reacted. “You know, that was 1984,” the Oscar winner said. “That was 34 years ago. Folks — time’s up!” The room went wild, and Streisand reiterated that it’s time more female directors get hired, and more female-directed films get recognized. But she also wanted to celebrate Hollywood and the long-overdue change it’s going through: “I’m very proud to stand in a room with people who speak out against gender inequality, sexual harassment, and the pettiness that has poisoned our politics," she said. "And I’m proud that our industry, faced with uncomfortable truths, has vowed to change the way we do business.”