Justjared has posted the cover of Vanity Fair – Meryl Streep. I have grown up with Meryl Streep. When I was in high school, I watched Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice and The French Lieutenant’s Woman. I would later come to appreciate her funny, long-haired lesbian in Woody Allen’s Manhattan. And, of course, The Deer Hunter. I have been following Meryl so long I actually remember a time when people wrote her off as just someone who puts on a wig and tries out a new accent. Naturally, that theory has long since been put to bed. Streep is in a class by herself. She is one-of-a-kind, like Katharine and Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis. She represents both old and new. She evolves as she ages. She is wise. She is funny. She is humble.
And so maybe 2009 is another year to celebrate Meryl Streep. She who turned in a flawless, moving, unforgettable portrayal of Julia Child. She who also voiced The Fantastic Mr. Fox. And she who will strip down and show thighs, be vulnerable and play the pretty woman once again in It’s Complicated.
Vanity Fair is looking back on Streep’s career. So many of these photos of her I remember, having studied them for years as a young woman myself.
There is a line in Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard’s Brownsville Girl which says “I’m standing in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck, but you know it’s not the one that I had in mind. He’s got a new one out now. I don’t even know what it’s about. But I’ll see him in anything, so I’ll stand in line.” That is how I always felt about Streep. Yes, even in The River Wild. I’ll see her in anything, so I’ll stand in line.
Click over to VF for the rest of the pics.
51 Responses for "The Meaning of Meryl"
“She represents both old and new. She evolves as she ages. She is wise. She is funny. She is humble.”
And she’s hot.
That’s it. I’m having a Meryl movie marathon this weekend.
I have to say that Meryl has been one of my heroes since I first laid eyes on her. For her to get this kind of recognition now at 60 is really fantastic. Some people may think, “Oh, she always gets awards and recognition,” but … it’s, um, 30 fucking years of being sane and kind and competent! And she is a girls’ girl: smart, giving and sensible, and we love her.
Last night on the Sundance Channel they showed “Theater of War” a doc about the making of Meryl’s Mother Courage. It was an interesting look at the play and showed a small window in Meryl’s process. It’s funny that at one point people wrote her off as just a wig and an accent cause now there is Meryl and then there is everyone else. Im happy for her recent success, she seems to be able to find a good balance of money movies and acting movies. She also seems to have made a good transition to mentor to young actress. Working with Amy Adams, Amanda Seyfried and Emily Blunt. 3 great young actresses. Now if we could only get her another Oscar so we can all move on with our lives. hahaha.
btw favorite Meryl movies…Death becomes her and Falling In Love. Not the usual but I can watch both of those movies anytime they are on.
Well she doesn’t win nearly as often as she should have.
So, Sasha, if there’s no embargo, is Julie & Julia the obvious pick for her nomination – both in terms of deserving it and baity-ness? If either movie gets traction for other awards – such as supporting, screenplay, pic – which will it be? Most still feel Julie & Julia to be highly uneven…but it’d be weird if It’s Complicated gets more noms and Julia gets the lead nom.
I really, really would love to see Meryl accept the Oscar in March and I have a feeling of a Kate Winslet here. Come on, nobody could think Meryl doesn’t deserve it. If not only for her work this year, then for a career full of highlights the Academy SHOULD have recognized. I still can’t believe she didn’t win Oscars for Silkwood (I saw the film last year, but it’s one hell of a performance!), A Cry in the Dark, Out of Africa, Adaptation, The Bridges of Madison Country. These are all great, great performances. We love you, Meryl!
By the way, I saw clips from the film on youtube! I’d really love to see Meryl on Broadway soon!
PS, Sasha. I have another theory about Meryl’s current success at this time: right now she represents both her and the new generation’s best vision of a woman in the movies (would you rather be Meryl, Jennifer or Angelina if you had to be them for their whole life?). But I don’t want to blow everyone’s mind tonight. Meryl Streep is on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2009 so raise your glass … all is right with the world for a moment.
Will not even make the cut this year at the Academy Awards.
Watch out Catalina Saavedra : a breakthrouh Award at the Gotham Awards and a nomination at the Satellite Awards.
Late surprise entry from Chile in what is now a global race ?
“…but it’d be weird if It’s Complicated gets more noms and Julia gets the lead nom.”
yes, it would be weird.
it would be downright macabre.
*(I expect Julie & Juiia to get 3-5 nominations)
“…would you rather be Meryl, Jennifer or Angelina if you had to have the whole life?”
remind me again, which one gets Brad?
Is there even any argument that Streep is the greatest of her generation. And yet still most guys geek out over De Niro or Pacino. I find it ironic that despite the obvious disadvantages of being a woman over 50, Streep is still making good movies, while De Niro and Pacino make crap. Righteous Kill anyone. And what about Harrison Ford and Crossing Over.
I think the fact that Streep is a bankable star at almost 60 is perhaps the single most extraordinary thing about Hollywood today.
She evolves as she ages. She is wise. She is funny. She is humble.
And — always important in Hollywood — she is box office!
Like most, I admire and love to watch Streep whether it’s comedy or drama. She brought great and unique things even to films such as The River Wild and Falling in Love. This year, though, I feel her good work in J&J is more Golden Globish than it is Oscary.
As a child I caught the beginning of Out of Africa at a friend’s house and I was mesmerized by this very elegant screen presence. I kept repeating her name over and over in my head so not to forget and then I went home and whipped out my Microsoft Cinemania (in those pre-internet days) for the very first time and found all this wonderful information about her. In a sense, she opened an entire new world for me because after that day I was addicted to Cinemania.
The new Carpet Bagger debuts: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/12/01/movies/1247465917048/new-oscar-season-new-carpetbagger.html
Seems fine enough, but I’ll miss Carr’s boozy weariness.
@ Fred,
Meryl will make the cut this year.
First of all, LAFCA runner-up Anamaria Marinca didn’t make the cut when her film had tones, tones of love from critics that year and her name was usually mentioned as a very deservint contender. So I wouldn’t bet on an unknown foreign actress in a film that most Academy members have not even heard of.
Second, Meryl has bonus points for playing Julia Child – somebody many Academy members value deeply and it’s Meryl, she has the momentum, she has the press, she has the RAVE reviews and I bet the Globe will be hers and the SAG is likely as well. And Meryl has two other films this year, one of which could turn out to be a b.o. hit and already has some fans. So bet on Meryl!
Streep is Oscar worthy in It’s Complicated. The scene were she is in the plastic surgeons office and the scene where she breaks down when Alec Baldwin has to run out to meet his wife are both great acting. I could see her getting nominated for this.
Meryl is terrific but please dont mention her in the same breath as deniro. In his prime De Niro was not just knocking it out the park performance wise, but was in classic movie after classic movie. how many classic movies has meryl been in?
watched her last night. She looks amazing, not K-Big amazing, but still amazing. definitely in no need for overt airbrushing they did on these pictures.
she’s like a fine wine. never gets old, only better
To mike:
I respect Meryl moreso than DeNiro precisely because she hasn’t had the consistent benefit of starring in movies that fashionably make all the,usually male oriented, top 100 lists. She’s built an impressive body of work via films, well some of them,where her performances alone are literally their only best asset.
She really is exquisite, isn’t she? It would almost be irritating if I didn’t love her so much.
I respect Streep more than De Niro because she’s chosen roles of consistently higher quality overall for decades.
She doesn’t have a Godfather or Taxi Driver. But she doesn’t have an embarrassing long streak of Analyze This, Analyze That, and the Focker franchise to taint our recent memory either.
Really the only out and out stinker Meryl has ever made was She-Devil — and that was so intentionally campy you can almost forgive her. All her other stumbles have been honorable misfires. De Niro will do anything for a paycheck these days. Meryl makes blockbusters and makes the big bucks, but always with a touch of class.
(While I’m philosophizing, I’d say the number one thing standing in Sandra Bullock’s way of a nomination this year is her appalling knack for starring in utter crud. Appearing in what might be the worst major movie of the year is not a pretty thing to be lugging around when you’re vying for the big prize. Nobody wants Norbit to have an Oscar.)
I felt that Streep had a chance for Adaptation. However the Chicago momentum took Catherine Zeta Jones to the podium. Also if both her performances in Julie and Julia and It’s Complicated are great then what gets nominated. The nomination vote should not get split. Who decides on which performance gets the push? Is it the studio or Streep?
I think that it might be difficult for Streep to win as there is bias in the Academy against comedy. She would have won for Doubt if Winslet was not overdue.
She’s the best, period, and she doesn’t take any crap.
Now we just need Time magazine to put Meryl on its cover and caption it “Best Actress.”
She’s a victim of her own brilliance at awards time. She’s so consistently good that you always know they’ll be another year to reward her. I think this year is her time again, especially as she’ll most likely be up against newbies (Mulligan, Sidibe), first timers (Bullock) and possibly the only other woman on the planet, outside Judi Dench, absolutely like herself (Mirren).
Yes, it is that time of year to start the “Meryl-thon”. I own almost all of her movies (over 40 so far, a few have been impossible to find). This woman is so amazing on screen, she is most definitely in a league of her own. Besides the obvious box office winners that she has recently starred, I believe her enormous popularity as of late (the past few years) is due to her opening up a bit to the public. From early on in her career she very rarely granted interviews and didn’t partake in press junkets for her movies. She’s always been extremely private and it just seems that her popularity has skyrocketed since she started getting involved with the the marketing of her films, giving more interviews and showing us a side of her that we’ve never seen. We didn’t know that she was so funny, so intelligent and so very humble. What a neat lady, what a role model for all women.
Do I really have to pick between Streep and De Niro? What’s next, I can only have pumpkin or pecan pie at Thanksgiving and not both?? Screw that.
Anyway. Streep. I’m totally in the tank for her, but I wonder if outside the Streep bubble there is such a thing as Streep Fatigue. I have no evidence and box office tells us people are still hungry for Meryl, but I’m asking people on the outside…when are people who hand out awards going to get tired of her or take her for granted?
I guess as long as she’s making good movies, giving good acceptance speeches (or looking smashing and gracious in defeat) and bringing interest to this or that awards program, she’ll continue to get nominated.
I just watched her in Adaptation the other night. I love that movie, but sometimes I forget how great she is in it in just a supporting role.
The first impression that I got after reading this article is that I am getting old as Meryl is approaching 60.
I first watched her on the big screen when I was a kid. Time really goes fast.
Your theory really doesn’t hold Craig because she may have been nominated multiple times, but it’s been 30 years since she’s really been the awards darling. The closest she came was last year with Doubt, picking up several critics awards and the golden globe. Devil Wears Prada really only got her the globe, not a great deal of other awards.
How can you get fatigue when she never wins? Just asking. If she won the award over and over I could understand. I am frankly fatigued by the “Forget Meryl, she’s got enough awards” attitude. That’s what has kept her from winning every year that she definitely gave the best peformance. And I can think of at least 3 or 4 times when she was totally sandbagged and should have won.
@ Ryan Adams
I actually think that Meryl was wonderfully hammy and even Oscar-worthy in She-Devil – one of her few underrated performances. To each his own, I guess.
I really like her as an actress but she needs to work with auteurs like Von Trier, Tykwyer, Kar Wai, Herzog and so on to really lift her up and challange her skills. I think that artistic wise, will be very good for her.
Blanchett has certainly learn something from Ullmann during the A Streetcar Named Desire project so Im really looking forward to her first in Indian Summer to see a “better” Blanchett. She was mesmerizing as Blanche and I will never ever forget that experience watching her perform infront of me
She simply entertains the hell out of me everytime I see her and that’s really, truly amazing!
I absolutely adore her and wish her all the good things in life!
And I hope she keeps making movies forever!!!
@ Christopher,
it’s so true. She won awards (critics, Cannes, Berlin), but never was really close at that third Oscar. And why? She had sooooo many great performances. I write it again. Meryl was absolutely genius in Silkwood, A Cry in the Dark and Adaptation. This makes at least three more Oscars. I don’t want to insult Katharine Hepburn in any way, but she won Oscars for performances in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and On Golden Pond. Meryl didn’t win for A Cry in the Dark, Silkwood, The Bridges of Madison County! She deserves to win another Oscar.
Meryl is overdue. Meryl deserves an Oscar. And I hope she gets one this year. I believe she will finally win this year. She deserves it.
To Ryan: let’s be fair.
Norbit has better reviews than All About Steve. And better box office, which might help people not think about Steve so much.
true, j.
and All About Steve is in the past, so it’s easier to block from memory. I think Norbit was in theaters during the peak weeks of Oscar decision-making.
@ Christopher:
For the record, Meryl didn’t win the Golden Globe last year for “Doubt.” Kate Winslet won supporting for “The Reader,” and Kate also won Lead Actress/Drama for “Revolutionary Road.” You’re probably thinking of the SAG, which Meryl did win last year because Winslet in “The Reader” was in supporting.
Sally Hawkins and Anne Hathaway won the bulk of the most prestigious critic awards last year, not Meryl, although Meryl did tie with Hathaway for the Broadcast Film Critic’s Award, and Meryl was recognized by at least a couple of the smaller and less revered critic prizes.
“She who also voiced The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”
She who voiced the Fantastic Mrs. Fox!
I definitely think that Meryl is the front-runner for Best Actress this year. She was brilliant in Julie & Julia, and it sounds like she’s brilliant in It’s Complicated as well. I think she’ll win for J&J, because we all know how the Academy looooooves great portrayals of beloved real-life celebrities, and Julia Child is beloved. Plus, I think there is definitely a feeling that she is “due”.
The nomination will be the reward for Mulligan, Sidibe, and/or Cornish (if indeed they are nominated), but I really doubt they’ll win because their performances were not mind-blowing amazing – nor did their roles require them to play characters much different from themselves. Both of those factors are apparently requirements for a newcomer to win a Best Actress Oscar, like Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry and Marion Cottilard in La Vie En Rose. Speaking of Marion, I doubt she’ll be nominated again because her performance in Nine is pretty small. Helen Mirren won recently (over Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada, no less), so I doubt the Academy would let her beat another brilliant Meryl performance again so soon. I think Bullock is probably Meryl’s strongest competition right now (if indeed she is nominated) because she’s so well-liked and has never been nominated, but ultimately Meryl’s performance is more impressive. It’s Meryl’s year.
Amanda said
“Now if we could only get her another Oscar so we can all move on with our lives.”
So true. At the very least, it’ll shut us up for a decade before we jump on the fourth Oscar bandwagon.
Mike: classic Meryl films that will alway be remembered: Sophie’s Choice, Kramer vs Kramer, Out of Africa, Silkwood, the Deer Hunter.
Manuel: CB is not doing Indian Summer, the movie has been cancelled ( I saw her too in Street Car and she is incredible, I will never forget)
@Christopher, you make a number of excellent points. I’m not saying I think people SHOULD have Meryl fatigue, hell I was rooting for her for Doubt last year big time, but she does have 2 wins and numerous other noms. Sometimes I worry that people take her for granted.
Also, she was superb as Mrs. Fox.
It would be shocking for a newcomer to win in 2010. Streep could have won for “Prada” or “Doubt,” but she had to make way in those years for Mirren and Winslet. The Academy won’t make her lose again just so they can give an award to a first-time nominee. I also have a feeling that Streep has let her people know that she is okay with winning (hence, this cover). That makes a huge difference.
@ Laura.
Watch any interview with Gabby Sidibe. Precious is light years away from her as a person.
That being said Meryl is High Art incarnate.
Death Becomes Her? Give me a sequel!
She was facing a true juggernaut in 2006 (Mirren) so she couldn’t really win. Last year she just lost because of a tiny but crucial detail: Kate Winslet nominated only for Best Actress. Had Winslet been double-nominated like everybody was expecting, she would’ve won supporting, clearing the way for Meryl to win leading. Or does anyone actually think they would prefer to honor Anne Hathaway instead?? I don’t see how some Carey-what’s-her-name or Gabby-who-the-heck could stand in her way now. Only if one of them dominates the precursor awards, being unanimously mentioned as “best” by every organization. I’ve only seen that phenomenon happen once, with Helen Mirren in 2006.
“In his prime De Niro was not just knocking it out the park performance wise, but was in classic movie after classic movie. how many classic movies has meryl been in?”
If you are right this makes Streep an even more remarkable actor. She elevates the movies she is in, even mediocre movies.
You can’t argue that she “lucked out” by being cast in a classic. She manages to transcend the material. Not an easy thing to do.
I dont know which other actress is as versatile as Merly and does such a great job in everything she is in.
She does drama, she does comedy, she does romantic comedy, she does musical, she does accents, she does animated, she does indie films, she does big money makers. and she is just great in all of them. Imagine Prada without her?? Doubt without her? Mamma Mia without her?? Out of Africa without her? Adaptation? Sophie’s Choice? Krammer vs. Krammer? The French Lieutenant’s Woman? Silkwood? Bridges of Madison County? A Cry in the Dark? Julie and Julia? Angels of America? and many others…
She is just great in everything she does. She may not be in classic movies. But her performance is just great and classic in many mediocre movies.
Someone said ” Meryl needs to work with directors that can challenge her”. Really? Do you really think she needs to be challenged? That’s for newbies not for Great Meryl.
Everyone seems to adore Sandra Bullock because she puts a blonde wig and does southern accent in some tearjerker box office hit! Or some obese girl who plays a victim in an abuse movie…Now think about something? How many much better performances Meryl has given us over the years? I am not saying she is better than Kate Hepburn but she is not worse than her either. If Kate Hepburn has 4 Oscars. Meryl definetely deserves her third and even her fourth!
Meryl will some day have her own stamp.
How many living actors can you say this about confidently?
I see Nicholson getting his own stamp. Maybe DeNiro.
I also admire Meryl for not becoming a celebrity. She became famous but not a celebrity. She is not in our faces day in and day out, marketing herself, her private life, affairs, cosmetics line, her own perfume.
She makes a movie. Gives interviews to promote it and then gets off the stage. We are just sick and tired of Brad/Angelina/Jen/Tom/ Katie…………
“I am not saying she is better than Kate Hepburn but she is not worse than her either. If Kate Hepburn has 4 Oscars. Meryl definetely deserves her third and even her fourth!”
And she deserves them all in the Best Actress category (not supporting).
wow, meryl sure has a lot of fans. although on another site, many are arguing that Nicole Kidman had a better decade in movies.
The way the awards season works is that whoever is most in the news in December and the next month or two will be your winner (see 2008-09, Time magazine, etc.). Meryl is only going to be more in the news with the release of “Tt’s Complicated,” particularly if it does well at the box office. Carey or Gabby may be deserving of nominations for their work, but can anyone honestly say that they are truly deserving to win a best actress Oscar right now? Trust me on this one, it took me five or six tries to get one. KW
Leave a reply
All comments should respect the Awards Daily House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please let us know, quoting the comment in question.