One of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful actresses, Meryl Streep is a multiple Oscar and Golden Globe winner who believed her career was over almost 20 years ago. In an interview with Vogue magazine, the 62 year old revealed that she was offered the role of a witch three different times when she turned 40. Streep has never been featured on the cover of Vogue and makes her surprising debut on the illustrious cover of the glossy mag in its January 2012 issue. The two time Academy Award winner and two time Golden Globe winner quipped about being ‘oldest person’ to be featured on the magazine???s cover in the interview.
Her interview in Vogue’s January issue reveals that Meryl Streep felt that women of her age were ‘grotesque on some level’ after she was offered the roles of harrowing witches shortly after she turned 40. The movie veteran remembers telling her husband: ‘It’s over???. But if her movies are anything to go by Streep has only gotten better with age with her performances in movies like ‘The Hours’ and ‘Mamma Mia’! receiving critical acclaim.
Streep is also receiving major Oscar buzz for her most recent project which saw her taking on the challenging task of portraying former British PM Margaret Thatcher in a new biopic called ‘The Iron Lady’. In the movie, Streep portrays the former British PM from the age of 49 to 85.
Speaking of the former British PM, she told the American magazine: ‘It was a men’s club. There were women there but I think it was 16 or 17 out of 630. The world was changing. You could feel the old order breaking down. There were many people who really didn’t want it to change. You could feel it. It’s hard to quantify which prejudice kept her out of the inner circle more. But for her to achieve that at that time was incredible. Incredible. And to stay there. And stay there. To be the longest serving prime minister of the 20th century. Amazing.???
Nominated for 16 Oscars and 25 Golden Globes, Streep has been lauded for her more summer blockbuster esque roles in the last decade with hits like ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, ‘Julie and Julia’ and ‘It???s Complicated’. Though her career includes some of the most critically acclaimed Hollywood movies of all times.
The top 10 movies that have won Meryl Streep lavish accolades and praises from the critics are:
1. Sophie’s Choice: Playing an Auschwitz survivor with emotional scars, Streep won an Oscar for her performance in this classic.
2. The Devil Wears Prada: In one of her darkest, yet funniest role, Streep played a frightening and rather nightmarish fashion editor.
3. Out of Africa: Paired with the enormously talented Robert Redford, Meryl Streep???s role in the movie captured the tenderness of the love affair of a woman and an adventurer in this beautiful and moving rendition set against the mysteries of Africa.
4. Silkwood: Playing a character that remains unpredictable to the end, Streep never got preachy and avoids the usual clichés in this modern day David versus Goliath tale set against a corporate backdrop.
5. Kramer vs. Kramer: Almost brutal, the beauty of this classic sees Streep in the role of a woman pitted against her husband for the custody of her child with a storyline that explores problems of divorce and shifting gender roles in the ???80s.
6. The Deer Hunter: Set against the backdrop of the drafting for the Vietnam War, Streep captivates the audience with her role as a young woman who is on the verge of losing her beau to a war she doesn???t believe in.
7. The Bridges of Madison County: In this powerful romance that chronicle the brief, illicit love affair between a free lance photographer and a lonely Iowa housewife, Meryl Streep captures the angst of women relegated to domesticity.
8. Julie & Julia: For this modern day period comedy, Streep had to impersonate Julia Child and the actress blew critics away with the precision with which she captured the iconic cookbook author.
9. Doubt: Playing the principal of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, Streep overshadows everyone else with her portrayal of a nun who questions a popular priest’s relationship with a troubled 12 year old black student.
10. Adaptation: In a movie infused with subplots about drugs and Hollywood, Streep shines as a gun toting career woman.
The January issue of US Vogue hits news stands December 20.