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Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden sat down with legendary actress Meryl Streep. Nominated for best actress for her performance as Sister Aloysius in "Doubt," Streep talks about her role as an iron-willed nun, explains why she prefers to play difficult women and her true feelings about losing the Oscar in the past, and what her future holds.
Best actress nominee Meryl Streep talks to "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden.
(Heidi Gutman/ABC )
More PhotosThe following are excerpts from the interview, which will air Monday, Jan. 26 on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET
McFadden: It's award season. Good time of the year for you or bad time of the year for you? I mean, do you still get the little nervous feelings?
Streep: Oh yeah, very very much so. It's very nerve-racking. But you know, there's so much more chatter about it. There's so much more writing about, blogging about it and everybody sort of decides way ahead of when things are decided. You know by the voting thing so that it all gets very hyperbolic.
McFadden: Do you get your feelings hurt if you don't win?
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Oscarrific! Meryl Streep Smashes RecordPHOTOS: 'Button' Buttons-Up Oscar NodsWATCH: Streep of DreamsStreep: I feel honestly that I've won my Oscar, you know. I feel validated. But yeah, there's a part of you that thinks every time you do the work as well as you hope you can do it, you get caught up in the thing. … Here's what you get caught up in. When you lose, you think my work wasn't any good. But it's an honor to be nominated, and it is! It is. But you just feel worse when you lose than you did before you got nominated. Ok? I'll say that.
McFadden: The truth! How does the "world's greatest living actress" mantle sit?
Streep: It's completely, honestly, Cynthia, it is meaningless …
McFadden: Meaningless?
Streep: Yeah, because there is no such thing, there is no such thing. There is no such entity.
McFadden: You said you like to play difficult women?
Streep: Yeah, I do.
McFadden: Why?
Streep: Because their contradictions are so vivid and we're all so good at hiding ours. So in the course of a normal day, we all suppress what's hideous and the people that are interesting and sort of the one who just let it hang out.
McFadden: You know watching the film, I looked at Sister Aloysius and I wondered if she was the Miranda Priestley [Streep's character in "The Devil Wears Prada"] of the convent. They have a lot in common, these two women. Women in power, women with authority, women that other people are sort of pushed back by a bit. What do you think?
Streep: Wel, I see sort of a parallel in that women in power are still kind of terrifying to us and so Sister Aloysius is terrifying because of her demeanor and so is Miranda Priestley. But we are uncomfortable still with women in power and we don't really know, still, I think it's a complicated negotiation on the part of the person who has the authority and the people that she's bossing around.
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PHOTOS: Beloved Stars Still Oscar-LessWATCH: The Little Movies That Could 'Slumdog,' Winslet, '30 Rock' Sweep GlobesSo sometimes it's easier for people who are in authority to be authoritarian, because people know where you stand. The nicer the boss, the more mushy it gets and the more the female needs to ingratiate and be loved comes into it. With Miranda and Sister Aloysius, that's all sort of jettisoned.
McFadden: Let me ask you about this last year about women in power. How did women do in the last year with Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, do you think? Are women in power seen in a more positive light, or not?
Streep: Well, we're on our way. We're on our way to understanding all of it. I think we are just getting closer and closer as an evolving species to being able to accept this. But look around, look around the world this is -- women are living as we were in this country but in the 19th century in many, many, many parts of the w
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She's one of the greatest stars of our time, and the most nominated actress in Oscar history. But Meryl Streep has never surrendered to the Hollywood system. As her 60th birthday approaches, she discusses her acclaimed new film – and how she manages to stay sane after 30 years at the top
It's just after 10am in Los Angeles. Meryl Streep is a long way from her comfort zone. In the belly of the Beverly Hills beast, as it were, she arrives for our encounter, in a 14th-floor suite in the Four Seasons hotel, just a few minutes behind schedule. Based on the East Coast for the majority of her life, she only ever lived here for four years – and found it an unsettling experience. Maybe it was too much like living round the corner from the office. Or, more likely, it's that Streep never was (or will be) an industry player. "Hollywood to me is what it is to you," she admits. "It's something other than what I am. I sit outside it."
It's not that she's superior or sneering. It's just that, with four children and a husband of 30 years to contend with, the fripperies of Hollywood are not a major part of her world. Everything about Streep suggests pragmatism, not excess. Take her understated dress sense: today it's blue jeans and a low-cut forest-green blouse. Her blonde hair is tied back, revealing a pair of gold-hoop earrings, and she's wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses that lend her the look of a headmistress when she peers at you. Evidently her time spent playing the Anna Wintour-like fashionista in The Devil Wears Prada did not rub off. "I live simply," she shrugs. "I don't buy a lot of fashion!"
I must admit the idea of interviewing Streep is quite intimidating. There are those record-breaking numbers: 14 Oscar nominations, two wins; 23 Golden Globe nominations, six wins; 11 Bafta nominations, one win. No other actor comes close. Then there are the films: heavyweight dramas, like the two she won her Oscars for, Sophie's Choice and Kramer vs Kramer. And the De Niro-like preparation: learning to play the violin for Music of the Heart, for example. No wonder actors are all terrified. "Even [being] in a rehearsal period, with Meryl Streep watching, is a behind-tightening experience," says Viola Davis, co-star of her new film, Doubt.
Fortunately, the reality – as both Davis and I found out – is somewhat different. If Streep was ever a diva (and there's no reason really to think she was), she's so over herself. As Davis recalls, their on-set conversations were delightfully mundane. Much to her shock, they swapped recipes. "I was thinking, 'I'm with Meryl Streep. I could ask her about Sophie's Choice and Out of Africa and A Cry in the Dark. I could tell her I love her! And we're talking about cooking!' Then, at one point, she said, 'How are your feet by the way? Do you have good feet?' I said, 'My feet are pretty good. How are your feet?' And she said, 'Oh, my feet are terrible.'" So there you have it: Meryl Streep is a domestic goddess with bad feet.
This year she turns 60 – though, bar a few wrinkles around her green eyes, as well as those feet, you'd never know. She once said she found the idea of getting older humbling. Does she still feel that way? "Well, aren't we all grateful to be alive?" she asks. "I just know lots of people ... at my age, I've lost a lot of people in my life and I'm very grateful to be here. That's what I mean." Streep has been on screen for 32 years now, since making her feature debut in Fred Zinnemann's Julia, with Jane Fonda, in 1977. Does she ever think about retirement? "I don't really," she says. "In our business, you're not kicked out necessarily ..." In other words, the phone just doesn't ring any more.
Not that there's any chance of that. Right now, Streep is riding high from the success of last year's Abba-scored musical Mamma Mia!. Most recently, it gleaned her yet another nomination at the Golden Globes (she was also up for Doubt in a different category, though
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How many Meryl movies have you seen??
Put a strike through the ones you have seen.
Julia
The Deer Hunter
Manhattan
The Seduction of Joe Tynan
Kramer vs. Kramer
The French Lieutenant's Woman
Still of the Night
Sophie's Choice
Silkwood
Falling in Love
Plenty
Out of Africa
Heartburn
Ironweed
A Cry in the Dark
She-Devil
Postcards from the Edge
Defending Your Life
Death Becomes Her
The House of the Spirits
The River Wild
The Bridges of Madison County
Before and After
Marvin's Room
Dancing at Lughnasa
One True Thing
Chrysanthemum
Music of the Heart
Artificial Intelligence: A.I.
Adaptation
The Hours
Stuck on You
The Manchurian Candidate
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Prime
A Prairie Home Companion
The Music of Regret
The Devil Wears Prada
The Ant Bully
Dark Matter
Evening
Rendition
Lions for Lambs
Mamma Mia!
Doubt
Julie & Julia
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Mamma Mia. Its Malinda
Meryl Streep Claim to Fame
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Famous as
Actress
Popular for
As Linda in "The Deer Hunter" (197
Meryl Streep Personal Fact
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Birth Name
Mary Louise Streep
Birth Date
June 22, 1949
Birth Place
Summit, New Jersey, USA
Height
5' 6"
Nationality
American
Hair Color
Blonde
Eye Color
Blue
Education
Graduated from Bernards High School, Bernardsville, New Jersey
Graduated from Vassar College, New York, with a BA degree in English and drama in 1971
Graduated from Yale University, with an MFA degree in drama in 1975
Meryl Streep Family
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Father
Harry Streep Jr.
Mother
Mary Streep
Brother
Harry Streep III (choreographer, younger), Dana (stockbroker, younger)
Spouse
Donald J. Gummer (sculptor, since September 15, 197
Relation
John Cazale (actor, 1976-197
Son
Henry Gummer (b. 1979)
Daughter
Mary Willa (b. 1983), Grace Jane (b. 1986), Louisa Jacobson (b. June 12, 1991)
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-Radical.
This Is Really The WOman I LoOk Up Too x
Shee Is My Idol And Role Model x
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Megg.
here is an address that you can send mail to
it is her agent ( kevin huvane):
or e-mail him on khuvane@caa.com
Ms. MERYL STREEP
Creative Artists Agency
2000 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067
t: 424.288.2000 f: 424.288.2900
i have recently written a letter that i will be sending to her and i also found out that she has replied to 9 other fans that have written to her..
he is also the agent of goldie hawn, julia roberts, jennifer anniston, sarah jessica parker and loads more..
dont forget that meryl's birthday is june 22nd.. so dont forget to send a cardd! Lol
i know loads about meryl and her family and am her biggest fan thts 14
im gonna go on mastermind and choose meryl as the subject haha
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Meryl Streep - Female Performance - National Movie Awards 20
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Meryl was here in London last Sat and I saw her with my own eyes! I was so excited and nervous that I forgot to ask for an autograph
. Anyway there are a lot of photos of that memorable evening on BAFTA website: http://www.bafta.org/learning/meryl-...
Pola P 0 ReplysMeryl streep is Gorgous
Mamma Mia. Its Malinda 0 Replys