Donald Trump is about to go off on Hollywood again.
On Sunday night, Ashton Kutcher opened the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards with a message that stressed the importance of unity and acceptance. It also condemned the president’s recent executive order that banned immigrants and refugees from Muslim-dominated countries.
“Good evening, fellow SAG-AFTRA members, and everyone at home, and everyone in airports that belong in my America,” the 38-year-old actor said. “You are a part of the fabric of who we are. And we love you and we welcome you.”
Kutcher later defended his statements on Twitter, insisting he respects his country’s president but does not respect his policies.
Kutcher wasn’t the only actor to address Trump’s controversial immigration policies.
While accepting her award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy (for HBO’s Veep), Julia Louis-Dreyfus gave a powerful speech in which she talked about her immigrant father. Of course, she began things off with a little bit of humor, touching on the alleged Russian hacking and Trump’s fixation on voter numbers.
“Whether the Russians did or did not hack the voting at tonight’s SAG awards, I look out on thee million or million and half people in this room and I say this award is legitimate and I won,” she said. “I’m the winner. The winner is me. Landslide.”
But one of the most poignant speeches of the night was by Moonlight star Mahershala Ali. While accepting the award for Best Support Actor, Ali spoke about his experience being a Muslim in America and how he’s hoping for a better America.
“I think what I have learned from working on Moonlight, you see what happens when you persecute people, and they fold into themselves,” he said. “What I was so grateful about in having the opportunity to play Juan, was playing a gentleman who saw a young man folding into himself as a result of the persecution of his community and taking that opportunity to uplift him and tell him he mattered, that he was okay. And accept him. I hope that we do a better job of that.”
