Between all the award shows sprinkled around the US and other countries, she has been nominated 152 times and has won 121 of them. Do the math. Not too shabby.
I admire Meryl for several reasons. Often when you see an actor just starting out and you continue to see them throughout the years, you might notice that their performances improve and they grow into their roles. They blossom and mature...or they fizzle out and you see them on the "Whatever happened to. . .?" midweek t.v. show. But as I've thought about Meryl's performances throughout the years, they seemed to have started out strong and near perfect and have only gone up from there, if that's possible. She has an uncanny ability to be persistently brilliant.
How does she do it? One thing she has said in regard to how she gets inside a role is, "One of the most important keys to acting is curiosity. I am curious to the point of being nosy. What that means is you want to devour lives. You're eager to put on their shoes and wear their clothes and have them become a part of you. All people contain mystery, and when you act, you want to plumb that mystery until everything is known to you."
Meryl is known as a perfectionist when preparing for her roles (when preparing for her role in "Music of the Heart", she learned to play the violin by practicing 6 hours a day for 8 weeks) and she is known for the ability to master almost any accent (British, South African, Australian, Polish, German to name a few).
Not all her performances have been top-rated of course. She went five years without an Oscar nomination, from "She-Devil" in 1989 to "The River Wild" in 1994. But despite the lack of good leading female roles in those years, she was still nominated for four Golden Globes.
I've observed several things about Meryl when I've watched award shows that I like: I appreciate the fact that she has been married to the same man for over 30 years and still thanks her husband Don Gummer (NOT Mr. Streep!) when she accepts an award. I like that she seems genuinely modest and surprised when she wins. She is thankful for her fellow thespians and Hollywood family and speaks highly and graciously of them. She is truly happy for a fellow nominee who wins in the same category she was nominated in.
So she has true God-given talent, character, grace, work ethic, kindness, perseverance. I think she's the type of woman I'd love to have living next door to me who could modestly dish out life's advice while dishing out a perfect apple pie. And maybe she'd do my ironing. She once said, "I try to lead as ordinary a life as I can. You can't get spoiled if you do your own ironing."
Do you have a favorite Meryl movie? Let's talk movies and don't forget the popcorn!
2 comments:
Lovely topic, Janine!
Well, I don't do the ironing (care of burning a shirt once, never have to do the ironing again!) but I can certainly appreciate a very good down-to-earth actress like Meryl Streep.
By far and wide my favorite Meryl movie is Julie & Julia. Although her role was brilliant in It's Complicated, and I would have liked that more had the ending been what I wanted it to be, and not what the writers chose. But oh well.
I hate to admit this - but the movies I watch are heavily influenced by the actor that's in them. Because of Meryl's brilliance in Julie & Julia, Amy Adams is now one of my favorites, and I quite enjoyed her roles in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (and I was ALWAYS a big fan of Frances McDormand) and Sunshine Cleaning. Frances McDormand, of course, helped me get through the likes of Fargo, and Friends With Money, which had Jennifer Anistan, who I would normally NOT spend money on. But this list can go on and on. In fact, one night my partner and I took all of our DVD's and spread them on the living room floor, linking them by common actors, actresses, directors, music producers or Composers... we found that every single one of our DVD's were connected in some way or another.... with the exception of 3. So it was like As Good as It Gets was connected to Something's Gotta Give thru Jack Nicholson, but Something's Gotta Give is connected to The Holiday through the same director, Nancy Meyers. Needless to say we ran out of living room space. And sometimes we had to get a bit creative on the "connections". Have YOU ever had that much fun? lol.
Besides the fabulous Meryl, Drew Barrymore is one of my faves, and I will watch her movies, good or bad. Whereas I sincerely dislike Andy McDowell and will go out of my way to avoid her movies. Where will I be if Drew and Andy ever acted together?
But Meryl is amazingly versatile in the roles she plays. I've always wondered how, if one is so passionate that they "become" their characters for the time that they're playing them, how they ever manage to step back into just.... themselves? I'd feel such a loss and possibly loneliness by the disappearance of this "person" I created, whose role is finished and they must go away. And maybe others do too, and perhaps that's a rationale for why so many Hollywood Actors and Actresses 'go bad' - particularly at a young age?
But it's all speculation my dear Janine.
Oh, and I have a popcorn maker that I use to make my popcorn at home, and I've never been able to find proper popcorn salt until just recently! I'd been using NORMAL salt. Did you know that you can buy popcorn salt in the Spice section of most local supermarkets in the great country of Australia? Just an FYI. Keep up the good work! Smell those kernels!
Nice commenting Britzy. I have often wondered myself how any actor, after absorbing themselves into a role for six weeks, 16 or so hours a day, can go home and be themselves. I wonder if they take a little bit of every part home with them and lose themselves after awhile.
I watch movies primarily based on the people in them. Some people are a draw card for me, and some I avoid. I've enjoyed Amy Adams since watching her in Enchanted (tho' I preferred Meryl's story to hers in J/J). I love Frances McDormand, ever since seeing her in Fargo (Miss Pettigrew is one of my favs of hers). It's interesting to see how actors intertwine in movies, and I have played a similar game with my DVDs, laying them out and seeing how they connect and seeing what actor I have featured most on my shelf (I think its Harrison Ford). It's a fun verbal game to play as well - try it when you have to do some sort of 14k walk some day...
Thanks for the popcorn salt tip...I'm still using the two flavored types I picked up in the States, and I have found a bag of salty/sweet flavored popcorn that I love (in the pretzel/popcorn/chip aisle). I'll give the salt a go.
Thanks for commenting! PS - I also like Drew B - she has come a long way since her ET days!
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