When asked about the lack of minorities in an international film festival, actress Meryl Streep responded by saying “we’re all Africans really.” An Egyptian reporter asked Streep, who is head of the all-white jury of the Berlin International Film Festival, about the lack of racial diversity on the panel. Streep responded by noting that the jury included women, showing that the festival was “ahead of the game.”
According to the Associated Press, the reporter then asked Streep whether she could relate and understand films from North Africa and the Middle East. She responded that she couldn’t, but “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,” she concluded. “Berliners, we’re all Africans really.”
The exchange comes in the wake of a scandal over the lack of racial minorities nominated.