Meryl Streep - 2011 Kennedy Center Honors

ladies and gentlemen Tracey Ullman you I'm here to talk about my friend meryl streep which is a great honor that it's not easy I was talking to my daughter Mabel a couple of weeks ago and she's known Merrill or her life and I said Mabel Mabel what shall I say I said I know I'll talk about how amazing she is in her latest movie Iron Lady as Margaret Thatcher oh my goodness I just can't believe how the girl from Jersey became the girl from Grantham I mean only you can give this compassionate portrayal of a woman that I just raised against in the 80s males that no don't get political there's nothing more annoying than an actress getting political then I said been watching us a so I've done that Mable said okay mom is it anything Merrill's crapper you know I don't think there is she changing dancing at she cooked she cooks like bloody Julia Child right I am officially in all of you my dear friend I mean you work harder you give more and you are the most humble person I know and actually there is something you are Crapper getting all dressed up and having everyone tell you how fabulous you are but you're Meryl bloody street so you can act like you like it who is this woman for all seasons an actress who used tragedy and comedy like an explorer as she traveled the map of a woman's soul pretending is not just play pretending is imagined possibility in high school I wanted to learn how to be appealing so I studied the character I imagined I wanted to be I worked harder on this characterization than anyone that I think I've ever done since she had discovered her gift to see and feel the world through another's eyes her hope to use it without fear or vanity after one season in New York she was an acting sensation after a few movies she was an acting force who could give poetry to another's pain and grace to the twists and turns of a life's journey where you go oh just tell me what I did that's all just tell me what I did that so tell you there's nothing what is it it's me my fault you're just married the wrong person that's all this is going sorry wait yeah I died characters that are in precarious life and death circumstances are dangerous characters to visit with your body and soul throat I don't even know what is the truth after all these lies I have thought to be an actor is to want to visit those places the real thing that makes me feel so good is when I know I've said something for a soul at the age when film actresses were pushed aside meryl pulled us back in carnivore and that kept me honest I don't see my breakfast chair away eggs here where away where's that piece of paper in my hand yesterday morning what is it that you really like to eat each unknown this one no and we're so good at look at you now ruin your hunt of you when you flip anything you've just got to have the courage of your convictions especially if it's a loose sort of mass like though but go very well Margaret with all due respect when one has been to war with all due respect sir I have done battle every single day of my life and many men have underestimated me before this lot seemed bound to do the same but they will rule the day by disappearing into her roles Meryl Streep has made the world visible to us ladies and gentlemen 2009 Kennedy Center honoree Robert DeNiro as an actor looking at those moments of Merrill's life my first thought is I was amazing in The Deer Hunter I was nominated for an Academy Award for The Deer Hunter and so is Meryl that was her first she's up to 16 now you know what that means she sat through the Academy Awards 16 times I saw Meryl for the first time in 1977 in a production of The Cherry Orchard at Lincoln Center starring our late friend Raul Julia since then I've been privileged to work with Meryl three times in each of those movies and then everything I've seen Meryl do I'm continually struck by how perfectly she inhabits humanizes and honestly portrays such a wide range of characters there's never a false note never an overlooked detail truly no one does it better the Kennedy Center is honoring you tonight for your superhuman gifts as an actress I honor you always for your very human gift of friendship ladies and gentlemen 2003 Kennedy Center honoree Mike Nichols dear honoree like everyone on the stage and in this hall I love you thank you for the memories we did four movies together in a play she became a different person in each body soul and all we read the script we talked about it again on the set maybe one like this from ironweed I'd step back and then say the magic word action ladies and gentlemen Kevin Kline maril doesn't take shortcuts and neither in her work nor in her friendship she insists on going the extra mile sometimes literally we were doing our first dress rehearsal of Mother Courage at the Delacorte theater in Central Park we're finished I'm exhausted about to hail a cab to take me three blocks to my home and I see Merrill getting on her bicycle Merrill lives at the other end of Manhattan about six miles I tell her she's crazy you can't go all that way after all that work into the dark New York streets she pedaled away and over her shoulder she said I have to build up my stamina but Merrill needs the stamina as she's always doing double-duty ladies and gentlemen Emily Blunt you see in every scene she actually has two jobs the first is her own performance which is always just breathtaking and secondly is the task of stabilizing the other actor who is having a nervous breakdown because they're in a scene with Merrill's Dre there's one thing that I want with me in every scene and that is Meryl Streep ladies and gentlemen Stanley Tucci Meryl and I we have always such great chemistry but then Meryl has great chemistry with everyone and everything Meryl can have chemistry with street lights props costumes even Kevin as an actor you always pray you're going to work with Meryl Streep then your prayers are answered and you become the most nervous person in the universe and the anticipation is is dreadful yeah and then you meet her the nervousness the crush everything becomes love what's your favorite Meryl Streep movie can I say Sophie's Choice no cuz you were in it so it doesn't yeah no you you oh god no you must choose another one I do Kramer vs Kramer okay yeah yeah that's a good one I just need to know what you can have so whose choice if I can have the Devil Wears Prada that was a good one you were in that too yeah you know Annie was in that he was in yeah she was ladies and gentlemen and Hathaway did you enjoy working with Meryl Annie no no okay now I loved it she played my moss and never was cross she drove all my troubles away when she's your friend she's yours to the end no matter what others may say she don't tell me how I ought to be she likes me just as I am so when I give blue she's the one I go to for her heart is as big as a I'd rather have her 15 a week billionaire she's the best ever was and I loves her because she's my pal she's mad I know Oh

Channel: The Meryl Streep Forum

Views: 1,945,349

Rating: 4.8764462 out of 5

Keywords: Meryl Streep, Kennedy Center Honors, Tracey Ullman, Robert De Niro, Mike Nichols, Kevin Kline, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway, gala, show, tribute, The Devil wears Prada, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady, Don Gummer, Mamie Gummer, Henry Gummer, Henry Wolfe, Grace Gummer, Louisa Gummer, Ben Walker

Id: UnEfIHrGNxg

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 28 2011