The power of freedom of speech is on a lot of people’s minds these days and it is certainly always on Helen Mirren’s. That is why she was recognized on Friday at Variety’s 2016 Power of Women luncheon in L.A., co-sponsored by Lifetime, for her work with the charity group SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young. In a video presented by A&E Networks, the Academy Award winner says, “It gives kids who have bad stutters a space within which they can be the normal. It’s amazing. They have this gala and the kids get up and perform. It’s extraordinary where either kids who have a very strong stutter either lose it the minute they get on stage or they allow their stutter to be what it is but they have the unbelievable courage to get up and perform in front of 1000 people,” she says in
the video. “But also it’s the ignorance of adults very often who don’t fully understand what a stutterer is going through. If someone is stuttering you don’t fill in their sentence for them. They don’t want that.” Watch Mirren speak more about the power of SAY in the video above. Miley Cyrus, Scarlett Johansson, Ava DuVernay, and Laverne Cox were also honored for their respective work with charities.
“It is an honor to continue this deeply meaningful partnership with Variety as we together celebrate the power of women’s collective voices dedicated to impacting the world around us in such profound ways,” Liz Gateley, EVP and head of programming, Lifetime, said at the event. “We couldn’t be more proud to use Lifetime’s global platforms to amplify the efforts of this year’s honorees and inspire others to join them.”
