The Oscar winner has addressed the diversity row during a press conference at the Berlin film festival

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Meryl Streep has claimed that we are all Africans, when asked about the representation of minorities in the film industry.

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The actor was speaking at a press conference to promote her position as the jury president of the Berlin film festival, where she sits alongside Clive Owen and German actor Lars Eidinger.

“I’ve played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures,” she said, when asked about diversity. “There is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all we’re all from Africa originally. Berliners, we’re all Africans really.”

Streep, who is next to be seen in musical comedy Florence Foster Jenkins, said she is committed to the inclusion “of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions”. She also believes that her appointment on the Berlin jury is an important statement.

“This jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury, and that’s an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions,” she said. “So I think the Berlinale is ahead of the game.”

Her last film, period drama Suffragette, was criticised for a racially insensitive photo shoot that included Streep and other actors from the film dressed in T-shirts stating: “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave.”

Despite being a direct quote from Emmeline Pankhurst’s 1913 speech, it provoked anger, with many seeing it as a critique of those who have suffered oppression.