At last night’s Golden Globes, the theme of the night was empowering women — well, except for the Best Director category.
Stars walked the red carpet in black and wore pins, showing their solidarity with the Time’s Up Movement, which recognizes the sexual harassment and abuse in the film and entertainment industries and beyond. In his monologue, host Seth Meyers took shots at film producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey, both of whom fell from grace in 2017 for sexual harassment and abuse. Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient and the woman we all want to recognize our existences, Oprah Winfrey made an empowering speech encouraging young women, particularly those of color, to continue to uncover and speak the truth about inequality, both racially and gender-based.
With this mood in the air, stars and viewers alike noted that female directors like Greta Gerwig of Lady Bird and Dee Rees of Mudbound were absent from the list of nominees, though the films were nominated in other categories. And Natalie Portman was not about it.
Portman and director/actor Ron Howard read out the list of nominees for the Best Director category, which included winner Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water, Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk, Ridley Scott for All the Money in the World, Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Steven Spielberg for The Post.
Natalie Portman didn’t mince words when it came to the all-male director lineup at the #GoldenGlobes: https://t.co/xgBneo2yuH pic.twitter.com/4f0uIBqtaM
— People (@people) January 8, 2018
“And here are the all-male nominees,” Portman said, with a smirk, while Howard started laughing.
Some audience members yelled in celebration. Twitter users screamed (well, as best they could with words) about the savagery of Portman’s comment.
Natalie Portman went into savage mode and poor Guillermo del Toro never saw it coming pic.twitter.com/DF0BAcReSt
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 8, 2018
My 2018 mood board consists solely of the “bitch I’m gonna do it” and “bitch I did it” look on Natalie Portman’s face pic.twitter.com/jXnCi2rpRy
— Clarisse Loughrey (@clarisselou) January 8, 2018
The director of Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig, wasn’t nominated, even though her film was nominated for – AND WON – Best Picture. Natalie Portman was right to call out that bullshit. #GoldenGlobes
— Melissa_Ottery (@MelissaOttery) January 8, 2018
Glad to see that Natalie Portman is here for us to call the Hollywood Foreign Press Association out on their ironic exclusion. Since we can’t do so from our couches, you know, since we’re not famous and all that.