Meryl is Streeps ahead

FOR years, there has been a joke going in Hollywood that the Oscars are to be replaced by the Meryls as Meryl Streep has been nominated so many times for Tinseltown’s top prize.

Well, stand by, as she might well be in the running for yet another in 2018!

She’s been described as the actress of the last century and already has a pretty good claim on this century, too.

The talent of Meryl Streep knows no boundaries of either time or character territory, yet behind the scenes, she is simply a loving wife and mother.

“You have to keep your feet on the ground in this business,” said Meryl.

“I am flattered, of course, when people say nice things. That’s human nature. I don’t take them too seriously, though.”

Meryl had a less-than-exuberant start to life, born in New Jersey in 1949.

Her father, Harry Streep Jnr., was an executive of a pharmaceutical company while her mother, Mary, was a talented commercial artist.

Meryl was originally Mary Louise Streep. She had two brothers.

“We weren’t too badly off when I was a little girl and I can’t say I didn’t have a happy childhood,” she said.

“A lot of actors have had to climb from poverty, broken homes and even orphanages, but that is not my story.

“We lived in quite a well-to-do area and I went to good schools, but I was not entirely happy about myself and when I was in my teens, I decided to make a few changes.”

Those changes were quite dramatic as she dyed her hair blonde and replaced her spectacles with contact lenses.

Suddenly, a new door to life swung open and she was in demand as a cheerleader.

“I have never cheered so loud as I did at the Shea Stadium in 1965 when The Beatles played that wonderful concert,” she enthused.

“I was there and had my ‘I love Paul’ banner. It was just a fantastic experience and I met Paul years later and told him.

“I don’t know if he was impressed, but I was.”

Meryl’s attention turned to acting and she took to the stage at Bernardsville High School.

Later, she won a three-year scholarship to Yale University and more particularly to the Yale School of Drama. Her career was underway.

It was not quite as instant a success as it might seem, however.

“Hollywood did not just fling open its doors for me,” she said.

“I did other jobs to earn a living when I was starting out.

“I was a waitress for a while in the Hotel Somerset in New Jersey and that was great because you met so many people that you just drank in characters.”

She certainly did and in 1975, she joined Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre, which meant a move to New York.

It was almost overnight success for Meryl.

Within a year, she was nominated for a prestigious Tony Award on the strength of her acclaimed performance in Arthur Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays.

It was not long before Hollywood was knocking on the door of her dressing room, and in 1977, the world saw her screen debut in Julia with Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. The world liked what it saw.

“I was in the right places at the right time,” she modestly explained.

Maybe so, but there was no denying that her role in the 1978 film sensation, The Deer Hunter, established Meryl Streep as an actress with tremendous talent.

She gained the first of her 12 Oscar nominations for that.

Every silver lining has a cloud, though, and while Meryl Streep was the toast of Tinseltown, she was going through private trauma as she spent her free time nursing her actor fiancee John Cazale for nine months before he died of cancer.

“It was like having two different lives,” she said. “My career was going from great to greater, but there was no way I was going to forget the important things of life.”

Her first Oscar — for Best Supporting Actress — came for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in 1979’s much-acclaimed Kramer Vs Kramer.

Many other awards including Best Actress Oscars for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady, have since followed.

They are all well deserved as Meryl is not only a great actor, but works hard at developing accents and skills associated with the roles she plays.

For Music of the Heart, for instance, she learned to play the violin so she could be as authentic as possible.

She’s also learned Irish dancing and how to shoot rapids just to wring every little bit out of the characters she has played.

“When I heard my name announced as an Oscar winner, I just said: ‘Oh boy!’ as I couldn’t think of anything else to say,” she admitted.

“No matter how much you try, you just cannot imagine what it is like, it is just so incredibly thrilling, right down to your toes.”

Film successes have followed one after the other, with few not making their mark in both cinema history or box-office receipts.

In 2001, she appeared in Chekov’s The Seagull in a summer theatre season in Central Park while filming The Hours and Adaptation, a tribute to her tremendous talent that she could handle such different roles at the same time.

Meryl has been married to sculptor Don Gummer for nearly 40 years.

Now that she is a little older, at 68, Meryl is keen to see Hollywood writing better parts for women of her age.

“In The Devil Wears Prada, I was cast as a pretty nasty magazine editor, Miranda Priestly,” she said.

“That is the kind of role they write for women my age.

“So maybe there’s something in society that sees older women this way.

“Usually, we’re gorgons or dragons, in some way grotesque.

“I have seriously thought of giving up movie acting if there are not roles that do not depict women of my age as either dotty or horrible.”

With her husband Don, Meryl lives by a lake in Connecticut.

Their son Henry, who is mostly called Harry or Hank, also has an acting and music career as does oldest daughter Mamie.

There’s no reason to believe that other daughters Grace and Louisa won’t keep up the family tradition.

Meryl’s diary is constantly full, with films either completed and waiting to be shown, in production or preparing for the production process.

“I enjoy my work, but I don’t just accept anything,” she said.

“I like to be able to feel that the role is right for me and that the film will be really good.”

That’s the tip of a lady who has by now been nominated 20 times for Oscars and won one three times.

She is tipped for more Academy success in the future and in 2018 we shall see her on the big screen again in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Mary Poppins Returns.

It would be easy for her to take a massive bow, but she dismisses her success as not being anything special.

“I do believe that everything works together.

“It is not that I am particularly clever, but I have a wonderful family that has really made me successful as an actress.

“My heart is filled with them and I can think of no greater inspiration.

“Without love in your heart what would you have to express?”