LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep on February 25 said her “We’re all Africans” comment was taken out of context, writing in the Huffington Post about the controversy she sparked amid Hollywood’s ongoing diversity debate.

Streep, who earlier this month headed up her first international film jury at the Berlin Film Festival, said her comments to an Egyptian reporter during a

press conference about whether she was familiar with cinema from Africa and the Middle East, were “distorted”.

“I was not minimising difference, but emphasising 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,” Streep wrote.

The actress also added in the piece entitled ‘Setting The Record Straight From Berlin’ that she was not asked at the press conference about the all-white jury at this year’s festival.

“I did not ‘defend’ the ‘all-white jury’, nor would I, if I had been asked to do so. Inclusion — of races, genders, ethnicities and religions — is important to me, as I stated at the outset of the press conference,” she said.

Streep said she hoped the attention drawn by her “misconstrued remarks” would be directed towards celebrating this year’s Berlin film festival award winners, which included Fire At Sea about African immigrants.