Breaking the Wall

 

I love Oprah because, well, Oprah. I loved her before but like many, I was deeply moved by her acceptance speech last night. After the video montage of her accomplishments, I thought, Whoa, this woman has a legit legacy. But in her acceptance speech, rather than bask in the glory of her accomplishments and her moment, she used her platform for a greater good.

 

And then there was Allison Janney’s speech.

 

I learned years ago in an acting class that when an actor looks directly into the camera and speaks to the audience, it’s called “breaking the fourth wall.”

 

I had just watched “I, Tonya,” earlier in the day yesterday and was blindsided by the truths presented in the kind-of-horrifying film. In one of the scenes where the fourth wall is broken, “Tonya” speaks to us, the public. It made my heart gulp. If Tonya Harding isn’t a product of her environment, I don’t know what is. The movie made me feel an unmistakable empathy, and gave me a vantage I’d never had back in the days when the real story was real time. In Allison Janney’s speech, she mentioned that Tonya was in the audience and of course the camera panned to Tonya seated at a round table. Tonya was listening and so was I:

 

“What this movie did…is tell a story about class in America, tell a story about the disenfranchised, tell a story about a woman who was not embraced for her individuality, tell a story about truth and the perception of truth in the media and the truths we all tell ourselves when we wake up in bed every morning and go out and live our lives…” –Allison Janney

 

There was a palpable pro-woman, pro-humanity theme last night–it didn’t feel like a typical award show. Maybe something really has changed.

 

Time’s up. The fourth wall has been broken. Whether it’s the #metoo movement fighting back against sexual crime or a statement about class in America—not giving a little girl a real shot because she doesn’t fit the image. As I wake up in my bed this morning and go out to live my life, I’m a little more alert to words being spoken.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bfu5K9UDY4

 

https://www.facebook.com/wncnbeairshelleedme/videos/vb.229865810553398/681348698738438/?type=2&theater