Actress finds herself at a loss for words when winning Best Actress, Drama

Jan 16, 2012 10:48 GMT  ·  By
Meryl Streep accepts the award for Best Actress, Drama at the Golden Globes 2012
   Meryl Streep accepts the award for Best Actress, Drama at the Golden Globes 2012

Reports before last night's awards ceremony, the Golden Globes 2012, had it that producers wanted a 7-second delay to make sure host Ricky Gervais didn't mess up or drop a profanity. It came in handy with Meryl Streep's acceptance speech.

The iconic actress won Best Actress, Drama for her role in the critically acclaimed “The Iron Lady,” beating Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara and Tilda Swinton.

She took to the stage for her acceptance speech and the fact that she was caught completely off guard by the win only made the moment more special.

Video of her speech is below, embedded at the end of the article (albeit of poor quality, but it should still do the job).

As noted above, the 7-second delay in the live broadcast came very in handy when Streep realized she'd forgotten her glasses at her table and, as such, she could no longer read her speech but had to say it from memory.

“Ooooh [expletive], oh my glasses, I forgot my glasses, now I have to remember my speech,” she said, laughing.

“I just want to thank my agent and God – Harvey Weinstein. The punisher. Old Testament, I guess,” said the 62-year-old actress laughing, as Weinstein could be seen covering his face with his hands in mock embarrassment.

Before listing the people who had helped her do her job on the set of the film that landed her the win, on the same light note, Streep also thanked the Brits, for basically allowing her to take on the part of their famous female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

“I gotta thank everybody in England that let me come and trample over their history,” she said.

She also joked that host Ricky Gervais was initially considered for the part but he turned it down – so she thanked him too.

However, what made Streep's speech stand apart more than anything was her honest tributes to fellow actresses both nominated and not nominated, who, she believed, would have probably deserved the same award just the same.