Keynote speaker Molly McNearny encourages the audience to keep using their voices for what's right and calls out president Donald Trump at THR's Women in Entertainment 2025 breakfast gala.
00:00Thank you. Thank you, Jimmy. I feel like maybe we gave him a little too much freedom of speech.
00:06Like maybe we could just roll it back like 20 percent. This morning you told our kids if they
00:12didn't believe in the magic of the elf on a shelf that the elf comes in at night and kills them in
00:17their sleep. Yeah. I think we overcorrected on that one. I've been asked to speak about freedom
00:24of speech and I have to be honest I naively assumed it was a guarantee in this country
00:29until September 16th, 2025. It's something that I took for granted. It's something I thought I'd
00:36always have. Like my period. Did you guys know that those just stop? They just stop.
00:46I mean not without warning there's like eight to ten excruciating years where you are an unhinged
00:54psychopath who cleans every countertop. Gwyneth knows. Gwyneth's nodding her head. She warned us.
01:02She told us all about it on Goop and I didn't read the article. I just bought the candle.
01:09Has Jimmy left yet? You're supposed to leave now. Okay. Anyway your period stops you guys. It stops.
01:16And it turns out that some freedoms in this country can too. Who knew? We experienced it most recently
01:25in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and we got another taste of it two months ago.
01:32I watched a show and co-workers and friends and a man I love be put on indefinite suspension
01:39after our very thin-skinned president asked for his removal and for his FCC chair to publicly threaten
01:48the company that we work for. It is a fragile time for freedom. When I sat down to write about
01:57freedom of speech ironically I did not know what to say. I was consumed with fear and self-doubt. I was
02:06worried I wouldn't sound smart enough or funny enough and I would see J-Lo and I would immediately
02:11hate my outfit and my hair. Check. Check. Why do we come to women power events and dress like men? I don't
02:21know. Why do we do that? Also did anyone else get this hack where they're like hey put a rubber band up
02:31to keep your sleeves up and I have no circulation in my arms right now. He doesn't deal with that
02:39shit. Freedom of speech is the foundation on which this great country was built. A freedom that great
02:48Americans like James Madison, Frederick Douglass, Alice Paul and a bunch of other people I googled late
02:55last night fought really hard for us to have and to keep. I came up with mean tweets on Jimmy Kimmel Live and I've been
03:05asked to talk about the Bill of Rights. That's like asking a guy whose last job was to fire Gary Busey and
03:12Meatloaf to run our country. It makes no sense. I have to admit I started spinning. I think a lot of women do this. I had
03:22major imposter syndrome being here today. I opened up my laptop and I just stared at it and I really
03:30thought about canceling. Like three days ago I was like can I have diarrhea or something?
03:35Why would I do this? What if I mess it up or what if I get taken out of context? What if I just suck?
03:43So then I did what every writer does. I closed my laptop. I took a deep breath. I got out my phone
03:50and I looked at Instagram and I saw beautiful interior design and I saw cookies that I'll
03:59definitely not make for Christmas and then I saw an ice raid and I saw another ice raid and then oh
04:05my god Sidney Sweeney got a haircut and then I saw another ice raid and am I supposed to like this or
04:11not like this? And then some not so gentle parenting advice and then Trump called Tim Walls what?
04:19What? Oh my god Jimmy doesn't have that earwax cleaner. I should get that for him. Stocking
04:24stuffer. Did I even get the kids an advent calendar? Oh my god are these vitamin gummies that Chelsea
04:29Handler likes? Are they good? Should I get those? Cancer funding is cut. Oh my god Elon Musk is a
04:33trillionaire and we can't afford cancer research. Oh my god there's a puppy riding a pig. And there's
04:40an ad for a pillow in the bathtub. Are those good? Is anyone using those? Oh my god there's little cute
04:45outfits for the boo-boos. They're so tiny. I wonder if they make that outfit for my size. I could wear it
04:52to the Hollywood Reporter thing. Oh my god what am I wearing to the Hollywood Reporter thing? What am I
04:57saying at the Hollywood Reporter thing? I mentioned I'm paramenopausal right? And then it occurred to me
05:06in my anxious and frazzled state this is exactly how we lose our freedom. With paramenopause. No no
05:16that's not true. If anything paramenopause rage is going to save us and get all those freedoms back.
05:21We lose our freedom when we are scared and when we are distracted and I have been very consumed by
05:33both. Fear is contagious but the good news is so is bravery. I have watched Jimmy and my friends and my
05:50co-workers. I've watched them hold our leaders accountable without fear night after night. I've
05:58watched other late night shows and journalists and lawyers and activists and politicians and civilians
06:05in the street stick their neck out there for all of us. I watched many of you rally around truth
06:13and justice and integrity. And when our freedom of speech was on the line I observed millions of
06:20people across the aisle some in this very room using their voices to protect ours. I cannot emphasize
06:28enough how important this is. We must not be afraid to speak up and speak out to protect this country and
06:36all the people in it. Even when what we're wearing is dumb and JLo looks better than any of us ever will.
06:44I look like Yogi Berra's lawyer. Yogi Berra's lawyer. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Those who pretend to care about
06:57America are counting on you and me to be afraid and to be distracted. We have to actively protect
07:06the rights that we cherish. As soon as we normalize what's happening in this country that is exactly what
07:13we become. Whether you like it or not God or the universe or Oprah chose you to live in this time in this
07:23moment together with other people chosen by God or the universe or Oprah or maybe even Stedman. I don't know.
07:32Has anyone ever heard him talk? I've never heard him talk. She's so lucky. He never talks. So let's just use our
07:45time together here to fight for what we know is right. There are women not lucky enough to be in this room.
07:53Outside these walls who desperately need us to use our hard-won freedom of speech. There's a woman out there who
08:01is separated from her children by masked men right here on our streets and sent to a country she does not call home.
08:08She needs our voice. There is a woman who is not going to be able to afford her sick mother's insurance premiums.
08:16She needs our voice. There is a woman who is being denied the ability to make choices about her own body and her own life and she needs our voice.
08:29There is a woman burying her boy shot for being black. She needs our voice. There is a woman being called piggy by our president.
08:41She is one of many female reporters being shouted down. It's always the women being shouted down.
08:50They need our voice and probably a therapist.
08:58We cannot take our eye off the ball. I know what you guys did to get here today. I know it's not easy.
09:04You were packing lunches and getting a questionable blowout while hiding an elf and trying to keep your career on track and if you're lucky enough you're mothering a mother.
09:16And I know it can feel hopeless and overwhelming and this is a lot to talk about.
09:23You were here for avocado toast with Nikki Glaser and you might not be feeling cut out for it.
09:30I know it's a lot easier to talk yourself out of it and to bury your head in TikTok.
09:37My husband and my workplace, my livelihood and my friends have been threatened multiple times by the president of the United States
09:46and the propaganda machine that feasts on deliberately misinterpreting our words and making comedy the enemy.
09:55And I'm one of the lucky ones. We got knocked down and with all of you, you helped us get back up.
10:03And I cannot thank you enough.
10:07Please, please keep doing it. Please keep fighting for what you believe.
10:15Say what you want and don't sugarcoat it. Women always sugarcoat it. Don't sugarcoat it because it's easier because somebody might get mad.
10:23Make people mad. Every one of our freedoms comes back to speech.
10:28It is the foundation of everything that is good about this country.
10:33Don't give in. Don't give up.
10:36Thank you, Hollywood Reporter.
10:40How was that transition?
10:43And thank you, Lifetime, not just for sponsoring this event, but also for Dance Moms and Married at First Sight.
10:53And your Dr. Pimple Popper holiday special just renewed my faith in Jesus.
11:00Thank you all so much. I'm truly honored to be in this room with each and every one of you.
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