Meryl Streep, 72, Defies Time With Nearly Unchanged Look After Decades in Hollywood
Meryl Streep is often called one of the greatest actresses alive. She has been acting for more than four decades, and people all over the world know her for her incredible skill and ability to transform into different characters.
In 2004, she received the AFI Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Later, in 2011, she got the Kennedy Center Honors, where Tracey Ullman introduced her, and Robert De Niro and Mike Nichols gave speeches. Actors like Kevin Kline, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and Anne Hathaway joined to celebrate her work. The tribute ended with the whole cast singing “She’s My Pal”, a play on the song “He’s My Pal” from Ironweed.
In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded Streep the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. The citation praised her as “one of the most widely known and acclaimed actors in history” and highlighted her ability to portray many different kinds of people. In 2017, Viola Davis gave her the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, saying, “You make me proud to be an artist.” Streep quoted the late Carrie Fisher in her speech, saying, “Take your broken heart and make it into art.”
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Streep is famous for being able to completely disappear into her characters. Early in her career, she often chose roles of women who were hard to like or understand. She has said that she doesn’t follow a strict acting method and learns by experience.
Streep explained in 1987, “I have a smattering of things I’ve learned from different teachers, but nothing I can put into a valise and open it up and say ‘Now, which one would you like?'” Mike Nichols, who worked with her on several films including Silkwood and Angels in America, said, “In every role, she becomes a totally new human being. As she becomes the person she is portraying, the other performers begin to react to her as if she were that person.”
Streep is also known for her amazing talent with accents. She has used Danish in Out of Africa, British English in The Iron Lady, Italian in The Bridges of Madison County, and even a New Zealand-Australian mix in Evil Angels. For Sophie’s Choice, she spoke English, German, and Polish with a Polish accent. Streep said about accents, “I listen,” showing how carefully she studies each character’s voice.
Throughout her career, Streep has also spoken out about social issues. She considers herself part of the American Left and gave a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention supporting Hillary Clinton.
In her 2017 Golden Globes speech, she criticized Donald Trump for mocking a disabled reporter, calling it “an abuse of privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back.” She has also worked on labor rights, signing a letter with other SAG-AFTRA members in 2023 to protect performers’ work from AI misuse.
Streep’s personal life has had its ups and downs. She cared for her first partner, actor John Cazale, until he died of lung cancer in 1978. Six months later, she married sculptor Don Gummer. They have four children, including the actresses Mamie, Grace, and Louisa Gummer, and musician Henry Wolfe Gummer. Streep is also the godmother of Billie Lourd, daughter of her friend Carrie Fisher.
Her career spans film, television, and stage. Some of her most famous movies include Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia, and Little Women. On TV, she appeared in Holocaust, Angels in America, and Big Little Lies. On stage, she performed in plays like 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and The Cherry Orchard.
Despite all her awards and fame, Streep has always stayed humble about her work. She once said that acting is not just play, but a life skill, adding, “Pretending is not just play. Pretending is imagined possibility.” She has inspired generations of actors and left a mark on cinema that is hard to match.
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