Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep: a masterful, dialect-savvy actress with an expressive face. Born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, USA.

Early Life:

Once upon a time…

Streep began honing her vocal skills at 12 and caught the acting bug in high school. She rocked the drama and costume design scene at Vassar College in ’71. Streep rocked summer stock theatre, then aced drama at Yale for an MFA in ’75. She took her talents to the Big Apple, ready to conquer the stage.

Stardom: The Deer Hunter, Sophie’s Choice, and Silkwood

Streep hit Broadway in ’75 with Trelawny of the “Wells.” From Julia to The Deer Hunter, Streep’s star power skyrocketed in just two years. She may have had a small role, but her gentle presence stood out amidst the macho bravado, adding depth to the film’s portrayal of how the Vietnam War affected young Americans. She won an Emmy for her role in the miniseries Holocaust.

Streep continued to slay the Hollywood drama scene for the next decade. She won Oscars for playing a mom who leaves her son and a Polish survivor of a concentration camp. She nailed it as a modern actress playing a mysterious Victorian lady in The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), a factory worker turned activist in Silkwood (1983), and an aristocratic Danish author in Out of Africa (1985). She nailed it at Cannes and the New York Film Critics’ Circle with her killer performance in A Cry in the Dark (1988). Playing Lindy Chamberlain, the Aussie mom accused of offing her baby, she proved the dingo did it.

A devil, Julia Child, and Margaret Thatcher

Streep’s technical brilliance became a bit of a drag by the late 80s. She was known for serious films and critics said she lacked compassion. Streep decided to mix things up and dabble in comedies like Postcards from the Edge (1990) and Death Becomes Her (1992), and even took a dip in the action-adventure genre with The River Wild (1994). Streep ditched the not-so-great films and went back to her dramatic roots. Less charm, more talent. She nailed it in The Bridges of Madison County, Marvin’s Room, One True Thing, and The Hours.

Streep broke records with her 13th Academy Award nomination in 2003, leaving Katharine Hepburn in the dust with her 12 nominations. Streep slayed as a bossy fashion editor in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), earning yet another Oscar nod. In ’08, she rocked as Donna in Mamma Mia! and nailed it with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt. Another Oscar nom for Streep! She nailed it as Julia Child in Julie & Julia (2009), earning a Golden Globe and her 16th Oscar nod.

Later in her career, Meryl Streep lent her voice to the character of Mrs. Fox in the 2009 film version of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Fantastic Mr. Fox. She also acted alongside Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in the 2009 comedy It’s Complicated, which told the story of a divorced lady who was having an affair with her remarried ex-husband. After that, she took on the part of Margaret Thatcher in the film The Iron Lady (2011), which is a biopic about the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Streep received her seventh Golden Globe Award as well as her third Oscar in recognition of her performance. She and Tommy Lee Jones acted in the comedic film Hope Springs (2012) as a couple who were attempting to preserve their stale marriage. The film was released in 2012. She then portrayed a sharp-tongued grandmother whose husband had committed suicide in the film adaptation of Tracy Letts’ play August: Osage County (2013). For her portrayal, Streep was nominated for her 18th Academy Award.

Films made later on

In the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, Meryl Streep portrayed a vengeful witch. The role was based on Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods, which was adapted from the novel for young readers The Giver by Lois Lowry. In 2014, Meryl Streep also played the role of a minister’s wife who cared for mentally ill women in the western The Homesman. Because of her performance in the latter part, she was considered for nomination for an Academy Award in the category of best supporting actress. In the next year’s film, Ricki and the Flash (2015), Streep played the part of a feckless and failed rock-and-roll singer who tries to make up with her family. After portraying Emmeline Pankhurst, a pioneer in the fight for women’s suffrage, in the 2015 film Suffragette, Meryl Streep gave an ebullient and sympathetic performance in the title role of the 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins. Florence Foster Jenkins is about the tragicomic but ultimately inspiring efforts of a syphilitic society matron to establish a career in opera. Streep delivered a performance that was both ebullient and sympathetic. Streep was recognized with a nomination for the 20th time in her career for her role in the movie.

The following film that Meryl Streep starred in was called The Post, and she played Katharine Graham, the owner of The Washington Post. The publishing of the Pentagon Papers is the subject of the play that was directed by Steven Spielberg and tells the story of what happened. Another nomination for an Academy Award was given to Meryl Streep for the role she played. After that, she repeated her role as Donna in the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and in the sequel Mary Poppins Returns (2018), she portrayed a wild cousin to the character of Mary Poppins. In 2019, Meryl Streep made her debut in the world of television by becoming a member of the critically praised cast of the HBO series Big Little Lies for the show’s second season. In the same year, she played Aunt March in Little Women, an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s well-known classic novel, and The Laundromat, a farce directed by Steven Soderbergh about the Panama Papers controversy. Both films were released in the same year. Her works from 2020 included the musical The Prom, in which a theatre group tries to help a gay youngster, and Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk, which is about an award-winning novelist who reunites with numerous old acquaintances while on a vacation. Both of these films were directed by Soderbergh. Next, Streep appeared in Don’t Look Up (2021), a drama comedy about an approaching comet attack that would destroy Earth. In the film, she portrayed a narcissistic president of the United States.

Fun Facts About Meryl Streep

In addition to collecting a number of prizes for her work in the acting industry, Meryl Streep was awarded a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2002. This is the most prestigious cultural distinction that the French government bestows. The American Academy of Arts and Letters bestowed upon her the title of honorary member that same year (2010). The next year, Meryl Streep was presented with an Honor from the Kennedy Center. She was honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017, which is comparable to the Golden Globe Award for lifetime achievement.

Meryl Streep has performed in numerous classic films. Meryl and her husband have four showbiz children. Mary Louise Streep was named after her mother and grandparents.

The Devil Wears Prada and Sophie’s Choice are her most famous roles. In The Iron Lady (2011), Meryl portrays Margaret Thatcher, the first female British prime leader.

Mamie and Grace are actors, Henry Wolfe is a musician, and Louisa is a model. She appeared in Into the Woods and Kramer vs. Kramer. Some Meryl Streep trivia.

1.Her real name is not Meryl

Meryl isn’t the actor’s real name. Mary Louise Streep was named after her mother and grandparents. Her mom’s best friend Louise Buckman gave her the middle name.

Her father chose Meryl. Mary Louise is her name.

2.She applied to trademark her name

Meryl Streep has trademarked her name with the USPTO, like many Hollywood celebrities. She might trademark her name for entertainment usage.

Her application included live, television, and cinematic appearances, speaking engagements, and signature signings to prevent others from profiting from their brand. Meryl has filed to trademark her name, according to TMZ.

3.Meryl Streep was a cheerleader and the homecoming queen in high school

High school homecoming queen and outstanding cheerleader, the actor. Meryl was involved in high school, joining the cheering team, French club, student government, and musicals as the lead.  Homecoming queen was her senior year honour.

4.She has an advanced degree from an Ivy League university

Meryl Streep graduated from Vassar College in 1969. She received her master’s in fine arts from Yale in 1975.

In 1981, Dartmouth College gave her an Honorary Doctor of Arts. The actor has degrees from Princeton and Harvard. USA’s top 10 universities.

5.She was once evicted from her apartment

Meryl Streep was engaged to Fredo from The Godfather actor John Cazale. Engagement lasted almost three years. Measure for Measure was their 1976 Shakespeare in the Park duet.

When Cazale was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1978, Meryl stayed by his side till he died on March 12, 1978, leaving her to pay his expensive medical expenditures.

Meryl and Cazale’s flat was evicted. She moved with her brother and Don Gummer. Gummer let Meryl lease his apartment room, and they married in September 1978 after staying in touch.

6.She donated her salary from The Iron Lady to the Women’s History Museum

In The Iron Lady (2011), Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher, the first female British prime leader. Her significant part earned her a third Oscar. The actor earned $1 million for the film.

According to Ellen DeGeneres, she gave her whole profits to create the History Museum in the National Mall in Washington. To educate women’s history on the Washington mall, they needed funds.

7.She has been trained as an opera singer and has been nominated for six Grammy Awards

Meryl studied opera before singing in musicals. She taught opera under Estelle Liebling but quit to be a cheerleader.

Her training made acting simpler. She appeared in Into the Woods (2012), Mamma Mia (2008), and Here We Go Again (2018).

She’s been nominated for six Grammys for her work in Mamma Mia and various spoken word albums, including 2020’s Charlotte’s Web.

8.She has been nominated for 21 Academy Awards

Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, and The Iron Lady earned Meryl Streep three Oscars. Her most renowned roles.

Four Best Supporting Actress nods and seventeen Best Actress nominations. Only Katharine Hepburn and Jack Nicholson have come close.

Meryl is one of six actors—Katherine Hepburn, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman, and Walter Brennan—to have won three Academy Awards.

9.She gave charity to her Devil Wears Prada clothes.

One of her most renowned roles was Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada. Since the movie focused on high-end fashion, numerous couture designers donated garments and accessories.

Costumes cost over $1 million despite designer loans.Streep donated her Devil Wears Prada clothing to a charity auction.

Dress for Success, which helps low-income women prepare for careers, received some revenues.

10.She famously left her first Oscar in the bathroom.

Kramer vs. Kramer earned Meryl Streep her first Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1979. She left her Oscar in the ladies’ room. After someone screamed that someone dropped their Oscar medal, she remembered the amusing event.

Meryl is a brilliant singer and actress. The Devil Wears Prada and Sophie’s Choice are her most famous roles. She is a talented actress who wants to help women.

Streep’s Philanthropy

Homeless Coalition

Meryl Streep has prioritised helping the homeless. She has given to various NGOs, including the Coalition for the Homeless, the longest advocacy group directly supporting homeless persons and families in the US. The 1981-founded NYC group tackles homelessness in two ways. It litigates to safeguard homeless people’s voting and shelter rights and promotes long-term solutions to homelessness. It directly assists 3,500 homeless men, women, and children every day with food, housing, crisis assistance, job training, and youth activities.

National Women’s History Museum

Hollywood’s highest-paid actress, Streep receives $20 million each job. Streep played Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” a low-budget 2011 film, for $1 million. She also gave the full amount to the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM), an online museum formed in 1996 to honour women’s contributions to society. Streep told Ellen DeGeneres that “women’s history needs to be told” because many famous women’s experiences are unknown. Streep is the NWHM’s National Spokesperson and has sponsored events and fundraisers to promote its goal. She called Deborah Sampson “the first woman who took a bullet for her country.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists

Streep received the Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award in 2017. In her acceptance speech, she concentrated on politics rather than her profession and supported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), garnering more than $250,000 in contributions. In November, Streep addressed CPJ’s International Press Freedom Awards in New York. Her message highlighted journalists’ fragility and bravery. The actress finished by awarding Mexican journalist Patricia Mayorga the International Press Freedom Award.

The Beirut Blast

Meryl Streep has also given abroad. She gave $25,000 to victims of the Beirut explosion on August 4, 2020. The explosion killed 218 people, injured 7,000, and displaced over 300,000. Streep donated to KAFA (enough), a Lebanese nonprofit and NGO that fights gender-based violence and child exploitation, to help women who were injured, traumatised, or homeless in the explosion.

Meyrl Streep also donates to the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Healthy Child Healthy World, Stand Up To Cancer, and Equality Now. She inspires us by showing how one person can change the world.

Meryl Streep’s early challenges

Meryl Streep wasn’t ugly at 12, but she wasn’t girly. Meryl resembled a middle-aged secretary with her cat-eye spectacles and brown, neck-length perm.

At a school Christmas musical, the crowd stood when she performed O Holy Night in French solo. Some youngsters believed she was a teacher.

Her parents were startled. Meryl’s coloratura?

Streep discarded her braces, spectacles, and contacts at 14. Lemon juice and peroxide made her hair shine gold.

Beauty empowered her. She said, “I studied the character I imagined I wanted to be, that of the generically pretty high school girl.”

She analysed boy preferences. Even changing her personality. Instead of being “slightly bossy. a little opinionated, loud (a little loud), full of pronouncements and high spirits…I wilfully cultivated softness, agreeableness, a breezy natural sort of sweetness, even shyness…which was very very, very, very effective on the boys. But the girls didn’t buy it… They sniffed it out, the acting.”

Meryl was a great imposter: “I worked harder on this characterisation, really, than anyone that I think I’ve ever done since,” she remarked, adding, “This was real, real acting.”

Homecoming queen and cheerleader. Her again. Even the football player with a relationship fell for Meryl. He became her boyfriend.

Meryl Streep had likewise found the intoxication of singing and dancing on the school stage as a way to feel adored.

Yale Dramas

[Streep went to Vassar, discovered serious acting—that she was brilliant at it, that metamorphosis was her calling card, and that it allowed her to access her genuine emotional landscape—and then enrolled at Yale School of Drama.

Yale acting students slowly realised Meryl Streep could outperform them in practically everything.

“She was more flexible, more limber, had greater command of her body than the rest of us,” her classmate Ralph Redpath remarked. She danced. She swam three laps without breathing. She created Gruyère soufflés. She stunned everyone by completing a standing backflip in tumbling training with Olympic gymnast Don Tonry. She used her foil like Errol Flynn in fencing lessons with Hungarian Katalin Piros.

Who inquired whether she had fenced previously, and she said, “Not much.”

In improvisation exercises, she had thousands of ideas when one would do. Tom Haas, the acting coach, had them pass through a phoney door and silently say where they were going. Only their bodies were allowed.

A hooded caftan covered Streep. She slid her arms inside and twisted the caftan around to cover her head while facing the entrance. Her expressionless face was hidden. “Even in the way she did the exercise, she beat us,” Walt Jones stated.

Moni Yakim’s movement lesson had pupils blown about like leaves in the wind. “All of us were blowing around the room making asses of ourselves, and she was in what looked like a modern-dance position up against the wall,” Jones said. Another student inquired, “What’s up with you?” Streep replied, “I got caught on a twig.”

“To Streep it up” was coined. William Ivey Long said, “Take the stage. Own your character. Make us look at you.” For better or worse, she was now setting the bar for her students.

She mocked her rising fame. She and Jones were joking at the piano after a rehearsal. Jones played her nightclub accompanist while she performed Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

“How long do you think I can hold that note?” she asked him. “The first tiiime” was played. Jones raced to the lobby and pretended to call as Meryl clutched the note. He returned to “tiiime” singing. Sitting down, he played the next chord, continuing the song. “It was just for us,” he remarked. “It was empty.”

INFATUATION

Haas decided the students would play Chekhov’s Three Sisters with certain changes. Each performer, regardless of gender, chose a character from a hat. Meryl chose Masha. They may talk just in numbers or repeat one word from each line in their scenes. To locate poetry’s power, delve under words, and return with subtext pearls.

Alan Rosenberg played Solyony, the obnoxious army captain. He says that when women philosophise, “nothing” happens. Masha replies, “What do you mean, you dreadful man?” Meryl threw “what” at Rosenberg like darts. “What?” “WHAT.” “It had to be thirty times,” Jones said. “And Alan kind of shrunk back into the floor.”

He was infatuated. Meryl picked up Rosenberg’s irreverence toward Haas’s improv. “She’d be a bit of a bad girl with me sometimes,” he remembered. They protested Nixon’s second inauguration in Washington in January 1973. Unlike Rosenberg, Meryl skipped class to go. Faculty observed her absence.

Three Sisters concluded with a three-hour faculty lecture. “Centre stage was a sofa. On the sofa was Meryl Streep in the role of Masha with a book,” said directing teacher Michael Posnick. “She was lying down on the sofa holding the book, reading the book. And I became aware that she was humping the sofa. And I suddenly saw something about Masha that I had never understood or seen before.”

Posnick, like others, realised Meryl was planning something more ambitious than her peers. She made riskier decisions. By spring, first-year students called themselves the Meryl Streep Class, maybe with contempt. Haas then probationed her.

No sense. “Our class names ourselves the Meryl Streep Class, and this asshole puts the namesake of the class on probation!” William Ivey Long exclaimed. “Of course, we all assumed he was jealous of her. Everyone was just in revolt because of this behaviour.”

Rosenberg thought Streep spent too much time with him. Because no one expected him, he was never warned. She was different.

“What Tom said to us is that there is nothing that she can’t do, but I don’t think she’s pushing herself hard enough,” said Walt Jones, who witnessed Haas crying towards the conclusion of Three Sisters. “And I remember thinking that was bullshit. I mean, who could do more than she did?”

Staff were perplexed. Haas told Posnick in a faculty meeting, “No, I don’t trust it. It doesn’t seem to have any future potential.” It was like moaning about the Empire State Building obstructing the light.

“He said that I was holding back my talent out of fear of competing with my fellow students,” Meryl remarked. “There was some truth in that, but there was no reason to put me on warning. I was just trying to be a nice guy, get my MA, and get out of drama school.”

She was also questioning Haas’s character theory. “He said, ‘The minute you come into a room in a play, the audience should know who you are.’ I feel that the minute you leave a room, half the audience should know who you are, and the other half should be in complete disagreement with them.”

NEW BUT WORSE

Meryl worked hard after being labelled a troublemaker. The acting students rehearsed Gorky’s The Lower Depths, set in a Russian boarding home for the poor. First-year theatre students were seen for the first time by older courses. Second-year writer Albert Innaurato expected—maybe even hoped for—a train accident.

“Everyone was saying, ‘They’re awful, they couldn’t find anybody good. And the pretty one is just horrible. She’s really bad.’”

The “pretty one” was Meryl Streep, the keeper’s wife. In Act III, she pushes her sister down the stairs and scalds her. Despite her onscreen aggressiveness, the “charming” Vassilisa actress was discussed in the lobby.

“I knew this girl was obviously destined for something very big,” Yale worker, playwright, and later theatre critic Michael Feingold remarked, “because if you can do that and have everyone talk about how charming you are, you obviously have some hold over an audience.”

In spring, Allan Miller, an associate acting professor, directed the first-years while Haas directed a Brecht production at Yale Rep. No one missed Haas, but they were uneasy. Haas was scholarly, Miller “street”. He favoured scenario studies to improvisations. Different techniques.

Miller mentored 15-year-old Barbra Streisand and guided her throughout Funny Girl rehearsals. He found Yale’s student performers “pretty intelligent” but “hardly ever visceral”.

He was proud of his unfiltered remarks. His 18-year marriage ended. His date request surprised Streep. Would she attend the Yale Rep production on Friday night?

“She was a little weirded out by it and said no,” Rosenberg added. She said her New York lover had plans. Miller asked Laura Zucker, Meryl’s classmate, out.

Students learned Miller and Zucker were in a relationship during the course. Streep’s treatment toughened. “There was no question about her talent – she was brilliant some of the time, but cold,” Miller remarked.

Ice Princess

Faculty gatherings began to nickname her the Ice Princess. He chastised her for not trying in class. Perhaps she wasn’t. The kids thought Miller and Zucker were conspiring against Meryl. “They expressed their vociferous and vindictive feelings passively at first,” Walt Jones recounted, “but it grew.”

Major Barbara was Shaw’s semester finale. Miller believed Meryl’s “great galloping zeal” would suit the titular part, a moralistic Salvation Army girl who fights her weapons manufacturer father. Barbara’s mother was Zucker. She glared at Meryl throughout rehearsal, saying, “She’s not that great, really.”

“How come I’m sleeping with the director and I don’t get the part of Major Barbara?” she’d ask Miller at night.

Miller encourages pupils to base Shaw’s statements on anger, disdain, or self-doubt. Meryl tried but couldn’t please Miller. “She was having a miserable time with him,” Walt Jones claimed. “She didn’t know what he was actually trying to say to her. She was doing everything she could, but he was pushing her like she wasn’t.”

Students struggled too. One actor lifted his hand towards Miller but hit the wall instead.

Miller suggested something and Meryl turned her back on him. “Come on, Meryl, let it out,” he said. “She whipped around at me with this terrific look of both desire and pain, and then stopped,” Miller said. “She stopped the emotional flow. She didn’t want to be vulnerable, and that’s why her nickname was the Ice Princess.”

Meryl called Miller’s methods “manipulative”. She thought suffering had no place in art. Her tutors perceived lethargy or avoidance as a growing intellectual movement against Method acting, which had moulded the previous generation of performers. She favoured creativity over Miller’s “a lot of bullshit”.

“He delved into personal lives in a way I found obnoxious,” she recalled afterwards. Perhaps she hid something.

The cast met in the studio for a formal appraisal (the students called them “de-valuations”) the Monday after the performance. Starting with lesser roles, the instructors assessed the players. The dance instructor would say, “Well, you cahn’t really move.” The voice teacher would sing, “Your accent was a disgrace!”

“It was a bloodbath,” says Walt Jones, who portrayed Barbara’s father. “We were crisped, but Meryl got it between the eyes. A final dose of Allan’s vitriol he had been giving her throughout the term.”

She cried at the end. However, everyone was. Students gasped. They thought the simplest target was the most absurd. Miller couldn’t recognize or credit Meryl’s work. Better to demolish it publicly.

Allan Miller departed Yale after the semester. Laura Zucker did. After marrying, they went to Los Angeles.

Meryl debated if Yale would accept her. She had friends, but her professors were condescending or dictatorial.

Meryl vented to “Wi’m” Long in the kitchen of the yellow Victorian house they shared with other students. Why remain if she was such a bad actress? Why quit if she was as talented as her peers thought?

Influence and Legacy

Actress and activist Meryl Streep has changed the world. She advocates gender equality, human rights, and environmental conservation. She has also spoken out against sexual harassment and abuse, using her position to urge change.

Meryl Streep inspires and captivates audiences everywhere. She is one of the greatest performers of all time, and her effect on the film business and the globe will last for centuries.