Axel Schmidt Axel Schmidt

MERYL STREEP IS currently in Berlin serving as the jury president at the Berlin Film Festival.

And though it’s only the opening day of the festival, Meryl has already managed to put her foot in it.

During a press conference, she was asked by an Egyptian journalist whether she understood films from the Arab or North African world. and she replied, “I’ve played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures.”

There is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all we’re all from Africa originally. You know, we’re all  Berliners, we’re all Africans really.

If you think it sounds like something that would happen on Curb Your Enthusiasm, you’re not alone.

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The actress’ comments were not well-received on social media.

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For its part, the Berlin Film Festival has stated that it doesn’t believe Streep’s comments were “in any way insensitive”.

A spokesman told Variety:

As she made it clear throughout the press conference, she is committed to inclusiveness of all ethnicities, religions and genders. She underlined that we are all the same, all equal.

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