Meryl Streep Says America Right Now ‘Does Feel Particularly Dark’ But Hopes We Can ‘Get Back on Track’

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Meryl Streep opened up in a new interview about the current state of the country, saying she hopes America will “get back on track,” but acknowledged that “it does feel particularly dark” at the moment.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote her new Netflix movie Prom, Streep gave her take on how the country has changed over the past few years. The actress used California’s devastating Bobcat Fire as an analogy for what’s transpired.

“The Bobcat Fire just seems to be surrounding all the advances of the late 20th century, in terms of gay rights, in terms of women, and the election of Barack Obama,” said Streep. “All these markers that felt like signs of where we were going. And of course, history doesn’t move that way. It’s two steps forward, seven steps to the right.”

Streep continued, “Maybe we’ll get back on track, I don’t know. I’m hoping, but it does feel particularly dark.”

The Oscar-winning actress went on express her hope that those opposed to progressive ideas could be convinced otherwise without feeling belittled. “My mother always said, ‘You don’t win an argument with a man by proving him wrong.’ There must be a way that people can be brought to what feels like the obvious truth of what’s good in the world, what’s humane, what’s compassionate, what’s right.”

Streep added, “They can be brought to that reality without feeling humiliated that they took a wrong turn. Because I don’t like to be wrong, (wryly) I so rarely am. When I am, it’s very painful to come back from that place.”

Also in her interview, Streep spoke about how the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg affected her. “Well, I was lucky because I had my daughters with me here in Connecticut,” she explained. “The whole family was all together. We just wept. Because it wasn’t just the death of one extraordinary woman, we were feeling the fires come around us.”

Streep has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump throughout his presidency. The actress gave an anti-Trump speech at the 2017 Golden Globes, weeks before he was sworn into office. Trump later took to Twitter and called Streep “the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood.”