Meryl Streep writes an article on The Huffington Post clarifying her comment that “We’re all Africans” from the Berlin Film Festival. Bob Mezan reports.

Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep said her “We’re all Africans” comment that she made at the Berlin Film Festival was misconstrued.

“And the thing that I notice is that we are all, you know, I mean there is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture. And after all we are all from Africa originally. You know, we are all Berliners, we are all Africans really.”

The comment quickly went viral and made headlines around the world as some critics expressed disappointment. Others at the time said her remarks were taken out of context, and Streep said just that in a letter she wrote to the Huffington Post about the controversy.

She wrote: “I was not minimizing difference, but emphasizing the invisible connection empathy enables, a thing so central to the fact of being human, and what art can do: convey another person’s experience.”

The furor over her comments came amid an uproar in Hollywood over this year’s all-white Oscar acting nominees for a second consecutive year. The Academy has announced plans to diversify their Oscars voting pool in the coming years.