By Gary Geyer

”Why aren’t there as many good roles for women as there are for men? Moreover, why aren’t there as many good roles for ‘women of a certain age’ as there are for younger women?”

Meryl Streep asks a very good question.

Meryl is 53 years old, and although she is practically famous for asking that question, apparently she hasn’t actually experienced the problem herself.

Before the 1980s even ended, she had played among other roles, a supportive girlfriend (The Deer Hunter), a politician’s southern mistress (The Seduction of Joe Tynan), a dissatisfied wife (Kramer vs. Kramer), a lesbian ex-wife (Manhattan), a concentration camp survivor with a secret (Sophie’s Choice), a blue collar political activist (Silkwood), a transplanted Danish writer (Out of Africa) and a woman who claims a dingo ate her baby (A Cry in the Dark).

Meryl’s first began “acting” when she was in high school. She was unhappy being a somewhat awkward teenager, so she stopped wearing her glasses, got contacts; and dyed her hair blonde.

Practically overnight she became a cheerleader and then went on to be her high school’s homecoming queen.

Meryl was born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey. She began acting in school plays in high school and continued acting in college at Vassar. She then won a three-year scholarship to the Yale School of Drama where she stayed until her graduation in 1975.

That same year, Meryl moved to New York and began working with Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre. The following year she received a Tony nomination for her performance in an Arthur Miller play, A Memory of Two Mondays.

On to Hollywood!

In 1977, Hollywood beckoned. In Meryl’s first film, Julia, she played a small part supporting Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. The following year she received her first Oscar nomination for her role in the Vietnam epic, The Deer Hunter (also starring Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walkin.) That nomination was the first of 12 she would later receive.

Jon Cazale was a brilliant young actor who had major roles in the first 2 Godfather movies (Fredo), as well as Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter. He and Meryl met and fell in love while filming The Deer Hunter. They were engaged to be married when it was discovered Jon had bone cancer. Meryl helped care for him for the last 9 months of his life. He died in March of 1978.

That same year Meryl won an Emmy award for the highly emotional NBC production of Holocaust. The following year in1979, she played opposite Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. She received her first Oscar playing a woman who leaves her husband and young son. She had insisted on rewriting her part to give her character a chance to explain herself.

The role that brought Meryl the greatest amount of respect and the one for which she won her second Oscar, came in 1982. Many film critics regard her performance as one of the greatest ever put on film. The film was Sophie’s Choice. It included a scene of indescribable anguish when a parent is forced to make an unthinkable choice. No one who has seen the film will ever forget it.

Meryl is quite eloquent when it comes to talking about her work. “It’s taken me a long time to evolve a sensibility that understands that the place (in the script) where they say ‘pause’ is often where the whole movie happens.”

“Your soul has to be accessible to act” “I think to be a great actor or great musician or a great teacher, or an enlightened CEO, you’d be best served by having your soul accessible. I think the world would be improved if people had access to their emotions more. As an actor, that’s the main thing that’s called for. I have to do that all the time.”

Meryl says she has no “method.” She just trusts her instincts and knows what feels right. She totally immerses herself in her characterizations and assumes the life of whomever she’s going to portray.

Meryl has always had the ability to “disappear” into the character she plays and even transform herself physically to meet the demands of a role. She has a fragile quality that allows her to be earthy or plain. And with her beautiful blue eyes, pale skin and incredible bone structure, she can be elegant and glamorous.

The woman is full of surprises.

Just when you think you know Meryl she turns around and does something completely different. In 1989 she starred in a string of comedies that surprised everyone who thought her range might be limited to serious dramatic roles.

In her 1990 film, Postcards from the Edge, she knocked everyone’s socks off by belting out some songs. She had you believing she could have had a very successful singing career, had she chosen that path.
In 1994, Meryl again played with our perceptions of her abilities.

She starred in, and was terrific as a muscular, expert white water rafter in River Wild.She battles a raging river and two dangerous fugitives to save her family. She said she did the film because she wanted to have an adventure “like Harrison Ford”, and to “overcome a few fears of my own.”

She said that she wanted to let her children “see something on screen where a woman was physically brave without picking up a sub-machine gun in a preposterous way. The fact that women disappear from film after 50, except as grotesques, sends a message to our children that older women are not valuable or interesting.”
Meryl Streep has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards and is tied with Katherine Hepburn for most nominations. She has won twice.
She is also the recipient of the Bette Davis Lifetime Achievement Award.

A private life.

Meryl’s private life has remained remarkably private.She describes herself as the conservative child whose parents lived through the depression. “I’ve always saved my money, paid off my loans and don’t live on credit.”She has often said, “I’m just an actress who goes home to my family after finishing work.”

Meryl lives in Connecticut with her family. She has been married to the same guy for more than 25 years. His name is Don Gummer and he’s a sculptor. They have four children: Henry, Mamie, Grace and Louisa.

Meryl says she never commits to making a film without first considering how it would affect them. <<