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Home , Diane Keaton, Jim Carrey, John Cazale, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, The Deer Hunter

Interview Magnificent

She has been nominated for an MerylOscar 16 times, N A GLITTERING And then took to the stage won two and her night in and bellowed in mock horror, “There is seven years ago, no bad film in this woman. There are no latest incarnation the good and the flaws. Nothing. WHERE ARE THE FLAWS? as Iron Lady great of Hollywood WHAT ARE YOU, MAN? SHAPE- gathered to honour SHIFTER? BODY-SNATCHER?” the finest actress of The uproar was only matched by the is tipped to earn our generation. unanimous agreement − that, yes, here in her a hat-trick. Before walking on to the stage to this star-studded room of vaulting talent O accept the ’s Life was “the real thing”. David Leser meets Achievement award, had sat And that was seven years ago, well the extraordinary with her husband and children, blushing before Meryl Streep shape-shifted into but resplendent, as she absorbed the the hellcat fashion magazine editor, Meryl Streep and accolades of her peers, many of them Miranda Priestley, in The Devil Wears discovers a woman giants of the screen themselves. , for which she would receive her of sublime grace “You transcend talented,” Jack 14th Oscar nomination. Or before she Nicholson observed, beaming towards bled into the ideologically hardened mother and exuberance. his two-time co-star (Heartburn and superior in Doubt, a role that would earn ). “Impassive, passive, gorgeous, her 15th Oscar nomination. Or before committed. To me you are perfect and she would transform into the hulking, but I love you very much.” utterly beguiling, figure of legendary chef Shirley MacLaine, who, 14 years earlier, in Julie & Julia, for which she had played opposite Meryl Streep’s self- would receive her 16th Oscar nomination, hating, drug-addled character, Suzanne more than any other , male or female, The greatest leading Vale, in said, in the history of cinema. lady of our times: “The mystery of your talent is extraordinary. Yes, this was all before that, before she Meryl Streep has is so other-worldy that it makes me would dance and sing her way to a Golden been nominated for more Oscars than any understand there is more in all of us Globes and Grammy nomination for her other actor in history. than meets the eye.” role in Mama Mia!, the musical described her friend as that would gross nearly $600 million, her “my generation’s genius”. highest earning film to date; or before

called her “the real thing”. her performance in It’s Complicated, ➤ BRIGITTE LACOMBE. BY PHOTOGRAPHY

1 AWW.com.au january 2012 january 2012 AWW.com.au 2 for which she would reveal her madcap drawing age lines on her face, and of mourning. [But] not only did I know underbelly, and for which she would wearing old cardigans.) she was a brilliant actress, it was a garner the 24th of her 25 Golden Globes Shortly afterwards, Robert De Niro moment in her life when emotionally nominations for Best Performance by saw her playing a maid in Chekhov’s The [she could draw on her pain].” an Actress. Cherry Orchard. Within a few months, Meryl ended up re-writing her lines On that feted night in Hollywood she was cast opposite him in The Deer for the courtroom scene in the film and seven years ago, all these defining roles Hunter, the first of three films with De then went on to win her first Oscar as were still to come, even though Meryl Niro, and the first film for which she Best Supporting Actress, saying as she Streep, herself, seemed to doubt it. “I am would receive an Oscar nomination. accepted the award “Holy Mackerel”. so proud and grateful,” she said, bathing Meryl only took the part in The Deer (She then went and left her Oscar on top in the adulation. “I hope it’s not the end.” Hunter so she could spend precious time of the toilet at the end of the ceremony!) The End? Try the New Beginning. with her then fiancé who, This was 1980, the true beginning. Beyond these inspired performances, despite having been diagnosed with bone Two years later she would be Meryl Streep was also going to pull off cancer, had been cast − and wanted to nominated again for Best Actress in − has just pulled off − arguably the most appear − in this epoch-defining film on The French Lieutenant’s Woman. A sublime performance of her illustrious the war. year later she would win her second career, as former British Prime Minister The couple had fallen hopelessly in Oscar for her miraculous performance Margaret Thatcher. love a year earlier while playing opposite in Sophie’s Choice, where her Polish Think about that: the greatest leading each other in Shakespeare In The Park’s character Sophie Zawistowska (and yes, lady of our times incarnating as the production of . she learnt to speak Polish for the role) is greatest (love her or loathe her) female As Pacino would later recall, “I forced to make the most unspeakable leader of our times, the grocer’s remember John telling me, ‘Oh man, I’ve choice of all − which child to hand over daughter who reshaped British society met the greatest actress in the history of to the Nazis? Meryl had literally gone in her own image. the world’. I thought, ‘Well, he’s a guy down on bended knees to beg director We will come to this latest tour de who’s in love, so how good can she be? Alan Pakula for the part. force soon, just as we will meet the She can’t be what he’s saying’, [but] sure “There is hardly an emotion that “real thing” in person, but before enough it’s Meryl Streep”. Meryl doesn’t touch in this movie,” said we do, it’s worth noting that when John Cazale never lived to see his , the -winning the New Jersey-born Mary Louise or Meryl’s performance in The Deer film critic, at the time. “This is one of the Streep auditioned for one of her first Hunter. He died in March 1978, with most astonishing and yet unaffected and films back in the mid- − it was Meryl taking leave from acting to nurse natural performances I can imagine.” for King Kong − the Italian producer him to the very end. The films and Oscar nominations kept reportedly commented “He was lucky enough to have, as the coming, and in each film what we saw to his son in Italian, “She’s ugly. Why last vision of his life, Meryl’s lovely face,” was not just a capacity for playing did you bring me this thing?” actor said. “The most characters of remarkable depth, but a Meryl understood every word he’d amazing thing to see was capacity for accents said, and replied in Italian that she was Meryl during all this,” “She was − English, Polish, mid- sorry he felt this way. added Pacino. “The way Western, Danish, New De Laurentiis was alone in his thinking. she was with him by his destined for Zealand-Australian (as To those who’d seen Meryl Streep act, side, right through the greatness.” in Lindy Chamberlain) even in her early days, she was nothing whole thing. When I saw Italian-American, Bronx, short of brilliant. And beautiful. “She that girl there with him like that − there you name it, she could do it. looks like she’s swallowed a lightbulb,” is nothing like that − as great as she is in And through all this, she was also able director would soon observe. all her work, that is what I think of when to defy the Hollywood curse by finding “There’s something that’s completely I think of her.” happiness as a wife − to sculptor Don transparent about her, a glowing quality And with all that pain still raw, Gummer whom she’d met a few months that’s quite striking and delicate.” Meryl then auditioned for the role after John Cazale’s death, a marriage The dean of the Drama School at Yale of the haunted Joanna Kramer, in James Woods was to describe as the University (where she’d earned a Masters Kramer vs. Kramer, starring opposite “Great Love Affair of the the 20th degree after studying at ) . “She came in [for the Century”. (The couple has four children said “she was destined for greatness”. audition],” said Hoffman, “and after she − musician Henry, actresses Mamie and welcomed her to his New left, there was some controversy because Grace, and student Louisa.) York Shakespeare Festival in late 1975, a producer said, ‘First of all, what is her “I am wired for family,” Meryl once describing her as one of the few “true name? Murel? She never opened her said. She was also wired for investigating ” he’d ever met. (As a child she’d mouth, she didn’t say a word, she just the human psyche like no other actress

pretended to be her grandmother by sat there.’ She was literally still in a state of our time. ➤ BRIGITTE LACOMBE. BY PHOTOGRAPHY

3 AWW.com.au january 2012 january 2012 AWW.com.au 4 AND NOW SHE is sitting in front of me And what would the family think given “With Thatcher, I didn’t think about on the seventh floor of Robert De Niro’s that Baroness Thatcher was now 86 years defending her. She owns her place in Greenwich Hotel in , at 62 years old and in the grip of dementia? history, fairly written in granite. But of age, still a picture of studied elegance Would Meryl Streep be able to honour I did think about wanting to know and ethereral beauty in black pants, black this woman who had overcome enormous what the toll was. I’m interested in older boots and a purple gabadine jacket designed obstacles of gender and class to lead her people because I feel myself getting − she tells me − by the Malaysian-born party to three general election victories older and I’ve always been interested American, Yeohlee Teng. in a row? Would she be able to show in older people. I loved my grandmothers Just back from London where she the grit and defiance of a woman who very much, and my mother, and I [was] unveiled a poster of herself as Margaret fought and won a war across the other interested in stories that lay in the layers Thatcher, Meryl admits now to being side of the world − in the behind that old lady’s unashamedly fascinated by the character Falkland Islands − in the “what are [Thatcher’s] face. she has just played. face of fierce criticism, both the costs to “What are the costs to “She [Thatcher] was and remains at home and abroad? Would a woman?” a woman of being in this in many quarters very hated for what she render accurately the position? What is the cost she did with her policies in England. steel and bloody-mindedness of of that kind of life lived so ambitiously? She’s also revered in other quarters for a leader who had literally torn up the Are there any regrets in it? Are there who she was and how she stood up economic consensus upon which Britain memories of glory that you can still take for what she believed. had been built since World War II? pleasure in? What’s it like to lose the “So it was the discrepancy that attracted The answer is yes, yes and yes again. power of concentration when you were me. Who is this person who was willing Not only has Meryl Streep ended up somebody who could remember absolutely to − and could withstand − that level of sounding and looking exactly like everything? How do we take leave of venom? What kind of woman can stand Margaret Thatcher did in her 40s, 50s this life and how do people who have up as a human being through years and and 60s, capturing all the poise, regal a big contentious life behind them, how years of hatred, and still maintain her bearing and high certitude that were do they reconcile to the simplicity at convictions? It’s just interesting to look her hallmarks. She − and here’s the the end of life?” deeply into a life and find out where the uncanny bit − has also managed to As Meryl is talking − every sentence human being is in there.” achieve something else: a depiction, not glimmering with sparks of her own deep When it was first announced Meryl only of the loneliness of power, but of humanity − I am struck by how many Streep was going to play the former the loneliness and desolation of old age. characters I see before me now: the British prime minister, you could almost It is such a remarkable feat of empathy Danish plantation owner in Out Of hear the bells of indignation ringing out that I ask the iconic figure next to me Africa (with ); the Italian across the kingdom. How could an whether she felt the need to defend mid-western wife in The Bridges Of American, even a master of accents like Margaret Thatcher in much the same Madison County (with ); Meryl Streep, capture the modulations way, perhaps, she needed to defend the the author in Adaptation (with Nicolas and delineations of English speech? actions of the mother who abandoned Cage); the monstrous magazine boss in How could an actor with an instinctive her son in Kramer vs. Kramer? The Devil Wears Prada; the action heroine liberal bent do justice to an instinctive “Joanna Kramer needed defending,” in (with ); conservative like Margaret Thatcher? she say now after a considerable pause. the concentration camp survivor in ➤

one woman, many roles:

Meryl Streep was transformed into formidable former British PM, Margaret Thatcher for her role in 1978 Meryl won an Oscar for As Lindy Chamberlain in In Julie &Julia, Meryl Mama Mia! is Meryl’s highest in The Iron Lady. was one of her first films. Kramer vs. Kramer. the 1988 film,Evil Angels. played chef Julia Child. grossing film to date. ALEX BAILEY COURTESY OF PATHE PRODUCTIONS LTD. MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES.. COLUMBIA PICTURES/ COLUMBIA IMAGES. MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES.GETTY PRODUCTIONS LTD. OF PATHE COURTESY ALEX BAILEY RESERVED/HEADPRESS. RIGHTS STUDIOS/ALL © 2008 UNIVERSAL IMAGES. BROTHERS/GETTY WARNER IMAGES. GETTY

5 AWW.com.au january 2012 january 2012 AWW.com.au 6 “But yes, everything is a choice. It comes down to that, the choices. You don’t even know if the choices you made were the right ones and the jury is out until your children have children. So it’s an ongoing anxiety. “But no, to me the reason to make the film was to look at the life of a big public person and then to morph it at some point into a story about you and me and all of us. How do we take leave of things? How do we reconcile ourselves to the cost of the choices we made in our life?” And so now, finally, after 16 Oscar nominations (she hasn’t won since Sophie’s Choice in 1983), 25 Golden “I am wired for family,” Globes nominations (seven wins); a says Meryl Streep, here with slew of British Academy (BAFTA) three of her children, (from Awards, Film Critics awards, Screen left) daughters Louisa, 20, Actors Guild awards, People’s Choice Grace, 25, and Mamie, 28. awards, honorary degrees, the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government, a Meryl Streep Day named Sophie’s Choice (with ); the [gasping for breath]. I can’t do this. I don’t in her honour in New York − after all accused murderess in Evil Angels; know how she does it.” this, does she care for another award, the whistleblower in (with In playing Thatcher, Meryl Streep was perhaps her third Oscar? Kurt Russell); the master chef in Julie surprised, make that awe-struck, by the “I am very greedy [for more],” she & Julia; the dancing queen in Mama former British leader’s stamina, by the says, laughing not for the first time, Mia!; and now Margaret Thatcher, the fact she cooked for herself and her husband but more than laughing − cackling, Iron Lady herself. They are all here − every night, by the fact she slept only four giggling, guffawing, squealing, carolling, a kaleidoscope of facial expressions and to five hours a night and never dealt properly chuckling, gurgling all in one. hand movements that find wondrous with health problems like her teeth, . To this somewhat captivated outsider, form in one woman. “I’m in awe of her. How, for 11 and there appears such absence of vanity in When asked what the hardest thing a half years, to exist on that amount of the woman, such grace and exuberance, about playing Margaret Thatcher was, sleep and make that many decisions? it’s no wonder that director Mike Nichols the actress actually stands up and I’m not that way. I need once said to Meryl’s hunches into a stooped position of to go away, ‘leave me alone, “how do we Silkwood co-star Kurt ageing befuddlement, her face and I need to sleep. I need to Russell that “anyone who frame suddenly turning ancient, as listen to music. I need to take leave gets to know Meryl has she slumps around the floor. “The read some poetry. I need of things?” to fall in love with her”. hardest thing is standing like this for to be by myself’.” “What if they don’t?” three months − because all I wanted There is a deeply poignant moment Russell replied. Nichols said, “If they don’t, to do was stand like this [assuming a in the film where Thatcher as an old then there’s something wrong with them.” ramrod straight back].” woman is looking at a DVD of her There was nothing wrong with Kurt And then there was getting the voice twins, Mark and Carol, playing as Russell, just as there was nothing wrong right. “She [Thatcher] had capacious young children on the beach. The with Jim Carrey on that Hollywood breath. I’m a trained actress. I have gone former prime minister wonders aloud night seven years ago when he finished to drama school and attempted if it was all worth it, if she might not his uproarious tribute to the actress [Christopher] Marlowe’s ‘mighty line’ and have spent more time with her children. who rules the screen with these understood that the best way to read a Her husband replies, “You can rewind measured, holy words: sonnet aloud is to start at the beginning it, but you can’t change it.” “I just really want to say ‘God bless and don’t take a breath because the Are there things then that she, Meryl you [Meryl] as you have blessed us, as breath is the thought that will carry on Streep, would liked to have done differently? He has blessed us through you.” to the end of the line. “Oh many things,” she replies coyly. “But I couldn’t find where she Like what? “Never mind,” she replies, The Iron Lady will be released across

[Thatcher] took a breath. I’m like this laughing like a squeaky schoolgirl. Australia on December 26. BINUYA/ABACAUSA.COM/SCOPE. GREGORIO BRIGITTE LACOMBE. BY PHOTOGRAPHY

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