On Monday, Donald Trump, 70, took to Twitter to label Meryl Streep as “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood” after she used her platform at the 74th annual Golden Globes Awards to excoriate the president-elect in a politically charged speech.
And now, George Clooney, 55, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter and former co-star of the 67-year-old actress, has addressed the brouhaha at a reception hosted by The Clooney Foundation for Justice.
“I’ve always said that about Meryl,” Clooney told PEOPLE sarcastically.
With a smile plastered across his face, the Money Monster star added, “She’s maybe the most overrated actress of all-time. She and I worked together on Fantastic Mr. Fox as husband and wife and I will tell you even as a fox, a female fox, she’s overrated.”
George decided to end his rant by asking the president-elect a rather cheeky rhetorical question.
He said: “Aren’t you supposed to be running the country?”
According to The Guardian, when questioned about his own thoughts on president-elect Trump, he said “I didn’t vote for him, I don’t support him, I don’t think he’s the right choice.”
“At this moment in our lives we have to hope that he doesn’t destroy everything. The reality is you have to hope he will do a decent job because if the United States fails, really terrible things happen, so you have to hope that he can.”
He added: “I don’t see any signs of it.”
In case you missed it, George’s scathing review of president-elect Trump is a direct response to Meryl’s impassioned speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
Meryl used her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award – a lifetime achievement award, of sorts – to call out Trump for appearing to mock a disabled New York Times reporter in 2015.
The Florence Foster Jenkins actress said, “There was one performance this year that stunned me.”
“It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. There was nothing good about it. But it was effective, and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth.”
“It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back.”
WATCH: Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe’s speech will give you goose bumps. Post continues after video…
Speaking to a room filled with Hollywood a-listers she added, “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.”
“That instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same.”
“Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.”
George Clooney isn’t the first celebrity to back Meryl’s courageous act. In the aftermath of her speech, many of her Hollywood peers took to social media to offer their support, describing the three-time Academy Award-winning actress as “brave” for carrying out the biting speech.
Among the star-studded tributes were Shonda Rhimes, Ellen Degeneres, Diane Kruger, Lily Collins, Sharon Stone and Jesse Tyler Ferguson – just to name a few.