Meryl Streep | Full Documentary

[Music] I'm not very intimidating in person I think the things that have been written about me or more so its formidable then the actual item is coming up on this edition of movie star a look at one of the industry's finest actresses Academy Award winner Meryl Streep people are contradictory people are full of flaws people are surprising Meryl Streep a 16-time Academy Award nominee who's a master at accents makes an impact on screen [Music] she has so many moves so many little things she does that are really subtle and beautiful she's great and she's just so warm and so funny and so generous what is talent it's just she has a flair for making a made-up situation real you know and inventively freely makes it true you know it's breaking Meryl Streep is a two-time Oscar winner according to Wayne majors senior film critic for box-office magazine Meryl perfected the ability to morph into a rule what's amazing about Meryl Streep is that she's able to completely shed who she is and completely take on whatever role or performance it is that she's she's required to take on most actors if you look at them in any given performance you'll see a little bit of their mannerisms who they are if you know who they are as a person you'll see that in their performance Meryl Streep somehow is able to just let who she is go and completely take on the role and that's that's a rare talent she was born Mary Louise Streep on June 22nd 1949 in Summit New Jersey Meryl studied to be an opera singer she graduated Kolob from Vassar and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale her first professional acting job for onstage her 1977 big-screen debut who was opposite Jane Fonda in a true story about playwright Lillian Hellman Julia a street married sculptor Don Gummer and then earned her first Oscar nomination for the dear honoree in 1979 the year her son was born Meryl had three movie releases including Woody Allen's Manhattan the political drama the seduction of Joe Timon and the divorce drama Kramer vs Kramer Streep won her first Oscar for Kramer vs Kramer you're supposed to feel sorry for the mother in those situations the woman is always the easy one to feel for and the film was constructed to make you not feel so much for her but rather than go either way she brought this this storm of conflicted emotions to the part that I don't think anybody really believed was in the material to begin with two years after her first Academy Award received another Oscar nomination for the romance the French Lieutenant's woman her next release the mystery thriller still of the night tries to duplicate the look of an Alfred Hitchcock film but Meryl wasn't used to her full potential still of the night that was something that was a noir film that my whole character was about my hair and how it caught the light from the venetian blind and i found it incredibly boring and so boring is his heart another 1982 released Sophie's Choice proved to be more challenging Meryl mastered a polish accent and how to speak German Street plays a Nazi concentration camp survivor in Sophie's Choice which was another oscar-winning role for her that was when everybody first suddenly realized just what a chameleon she could be they knew she was a good actress but with Sophie's Choice it was sudden they suddenly became aware of the fact that she could do anything the axe and everything about that performance was so completely contrary to everything that she had done before that you know how do you how do you not give her an Oscar for that Sophie's Choice co-stars Kevin Kline the following year Street but her husband had a baby girl and she impressed audiences with an oscar-nominated performance in Silkwood as a nuclear plant employee who dies under mysterious circumstances Streep was now a household name she was playing opposite famous actors including Robert De Niro in falling in love and Sam Neill and plenty Robert Redford worked with her on out of Africa which earned another Oscar nomination next Jack Nicholson co-starred with her in heartburn Streep's daughter placed her child in the movie then in real life Meryl gave birth to another baby girl her next oscar-nominated performance opposite Jack Nicholson was a homeless person for her to do what she did an iron weed with Jack Nicholson was to my mind probably one of the most daring things ever she's a homeless woman she's a woman who's down-and-out it's one of the most dressed down rugged raw performances of her career and yet she turned that performance in at a time when by rights she should have been going for more glamorous Streep was also far from glamorous in her next oscar-nominated role by in the dark she portrays a real-life Australian woman charged with the murder of her baby Merrill's baby daughter accompanied her on the set when I was in Australia shooting evil angels I think they called it their cry in the dark I was so fascinated by the aboriginal mothers when we were shooting in Alice Springs the families that were in our film and the little bitty kids never moved away from the mother my I had a three-year-old with me and she every time I let go of her hand she would take off into the bush and just get you know there's everything spiky and spiny and I thought she was you know I drove me insane if the strip's memorable line and to cry in the dark that dingo took my baby became the bootys catchphrase after working in Australia Streep the mother decided to stay close to home for her children's sake and following so many dramas she wanted to make a comedy the 1989 comedy she-devil film near her home in New York now 40 years old Meryl plays the other woman a romance novelist then she did her own scene postcards from the edge written by Carrie Fisher Merrill portrays a second generation it's about making her way back to real life without drugs and out from under the shadow of her mother to me it was interesting too because I'm a famous person and it's about being the daughter of a famous person so I have a sort of unnatural and interest in this subject Merrill enjoyed filming postcards from the edge in Los Angeles now I realize why people made movies here for years and years and years because it's really lovely to make films here it's easier I mean the weather is good all the time and you can go home at night not true in you know the Serengeti Plain they learned another Academy Award nomination for postcards from the edge one year later she and her husband had another baby girl on screen she returned to comedy playing the woman Albert Brooks meets in the afterlife in defending your life then Streep continued the comedy genre with death becomes her co-star Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn it's about two female rivals who take an immortality potion death becomes her one a visual effects Oscar next she was on the road and in a Drama again traveling to Denmark and Portugal for the house of the spirits Glenn Close co-stars then Streep tried something completely different becoming an action star and the adventure the river wild in order to play a river rafting guy she learned how to navigate class 4 Rapids just physically it was very I needed a lot of stamina and and kind of courage that I haven't had to call up before I mean not not just emotional courage although this is sort of ended up being a very emotional movie but physically that the challenge was to be able to read the water and and understand how to move through it safely Streep had to act while rafting through whitewater she plays a river guide taken hostage by heart robbers nobody ever really expects great actors to become action stars or necessarily vice versa those are those are two different camps so from Meryl to actually become physical to say I think I can do you know what action stars do I can do what what the boys do that was extraordinary no one ever expected that fun after buffing up for the river wild Meryl gained weight to play a middle-aged housewife in The Bridges of Madison County the romance directed by Ann Coe story is based on a best-selling novel The Bridges of Madison County performed well at the box office and Meryl was nominated for another Academy Award with her next drama before and after is about a son who's accused of murder another drama Marvin's Room focuses on a family that we unites after the sisters diagnosed with leukemia Diane Keaton and Robert DeNiro co-star her next release dancing at Lughnasa is based on a Tony when when when we play Merrill portrays one of five unmarried sisters in rural Ireland next she played a mother died of cancer it's about something every human being should know which is you know wake up smell the flowers be here now be in your life and it's a nice romantic reminder to not take for granted the people who love you and the contribution that they make in your life Renee Zellweger attended the ceremony as Moreau received a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame when I first came to Hollywood I was 19 and I was somebody's date for spring vacation who lived here and we walked along this exact route and I walked over all sorts of people but I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be walking over me at some point I'm gonna have my star on the Walk of Fame today and that little ceremony is like a small town ceremony it's really sweet Oscar winner Meryl Streep cemented herself in movie history now 50 years old she moved to character roles he plays a music teacher fighting the Board of Education to teach underprivileged kids in her night release music of that money now I teach 150 kids at 3 East Harlem schools streep learn to play the violin for music of the heart and she earned another Oscar nomination next she voiced a character in the futuristic sci-fi Pinocchio story artificial intelligence AI she plays blue mecha the drama's version of the Blue Fairy also in 2001 Marilyn her family moved to New York the following year she had to December releases adaptation and the ours adaptation was just a joy from beginning to end I shot both of the films back-to-back and the hours was very difficult but this one I landed in Southern California and sort of didn't stop smiling from the minute we started shooting she plays an author whose book is adapted as a screenplay and adaptation her portrayal earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win it's very unexpected and so I'm completely the rug has been pulled out from under me you look very glamorous right now thank you what don't get him near me I smell like a camel nervous and happy Jeep talked about her other 2002 release the hours focusing on me whether it's actually amazingly fluid a fluid movie but the emotions that are swept along in that current are really deep and so I just had to keep myself all tightly coiled all the time which was rough the ours was a Best Picture Oscar nominee in 2003 Mel and her husband Don come her celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary she also won another Golden Globe Award for her work on the television miniseries about the AIDS crisis Angels in America I'm really really proud of this piece maybe more than anything I've done Angels in America was the most-watched cable show of 2000 Trude followed with a remake of The Manchurian Candidate directed by Jonathan Deming she plays the mother of a vice presidential candidate in the political thriller I felt so confident in this piece of material it's a thrilling bit of writing and it's in the hands of a master director Meryl has done a very good job of transforming herself into a character actress it's almost like it's liberated her she's found the out from that curse of not being able to continue a career as you get older and she's doing colorful roles supporting roles that she probably never would have been allowed to do when she was younger another character in the family film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was fun because of co-star Jim Carrey he does most of the work for you you know he's so funny and the problem working with him is not laughing during the movie you know you just got to hold your breath and get through the scene it's a little nerve-wracking as an actor you know you just want to make sure she likes you or something I don't know there's just some part of you that wants to be accepted Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was a box office success earning more than 180 million dollars in the US history return to comedy for her next release choose a psychoanalyst coastal watching her work when I was younger inspired me to be an actress and to sit down opposite her and and be in the same scene with her could be you know very daunting just from that admiration level but um in the end she's just a sort of wonderful and beautiful person she's very funny she's very quirky and realizing I think this let's lit of that out I know it's hard for you to understand but this isn't personal I just didn't want my son to giving up on his face so early when I read the script I did not know what was coming and I thought well this is an interesting story about a shrink who's really trying to help this young woman and she has problems with her son I can relate you know and then it all kind of explodes it was very funny Streep relied on her own motherly instincts for pride it's hard to you know let go of those desires to mother and to correct and to help and I don't think it matters if you're a shrink or professor right you know the president United States probably it's hard no matter when this moment happens in a parent's life when the child goes off prime was Streep's only release in 2005 then the actress who rarely made more than one film a year had three releases in 2006 she sang for her role and a Prairie Home Companion and plays a tough New York fashion magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada to me it's the story of a woman in corporate at the head of the corporate ladder who's a misunderstood whose motives and the pressures on her are intense and who doesn't have time to play certain nice games she plays other games makes good business sense The Devil Wears Prada co-star had Hathaway play Streep's assistant in the film it's a coincidence that in real life both Streep and Hathaway attended Vassar that was kind of speechless when I first met her so she's like so you into mess I was like yeah so it gave us a little bit of conversation because their attention between Stroup's and hathaways characters now stood aloof on set she was really focused in her character so she wasn't really herself on the set and Meryl as a woman is so warm and gregarious and maternal and lovely just lovely and on said she was just she said she tried to isolated herself to stay very quiet and deaf but we understood why she warned me about it before the movie started that you might do that Streep earned five million dollars for The Devil Wears Prada the movie surpassed expectations have made thirty nine million dollars into opening weekend despite stiff summer competition and Meryl was nominated for another Oscar Street work release of 2006 and Bullock is an animated feature in which she plays the queen ant maril work with her daughter Mamie Gummer on the drama that same year Streep appeared in the thriller rendition Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal she also co-starred with Tom Cruise in the war drama lion for lamps directed by Robert Redford it is a film about making the right choices but it's also a film about how easy it is not to make a choice at all just to go to a dinner party and bark about what you think politically this this is this buddy this is this person's fault this person's fault and not do anything about it yourself Lions for lambs is about incompetent leaders sending soldiers into battle whenever I get into a political type film you you end with a question rather than an answer I don't think it's us to give answers to pedantic and also I don't think American response to that I don't think they like to be told what they have to do particularly by the entertainment but to be able to provoke thought that's another matter and do it dramatically and entertain them that's another matter that's sort of my objective what attracted me to it was that it was a piece of film that didn't tell me how to think it invited me to participate streams big-screen characters in 2008 were complete opposites she's a mom who tries to find her and she plays a nun who suspects a priest of jungle abuse in the drama doubt her doubt costume helped Merrill understand the character putting on the habit in the morning layer upon layer it just sort of gets you back into the world and and it was sort of it did the work of preparation for me just the act of of dressing Amy Adams co-stars in Delhi as a young nun sister James has nobody else to talk to she is completely isolated you're not allowed to leave the convent you're not allowed to speak to a priest outside of outside of confession so the scene in the garden with father Flynn is completely forbidden barrows performance of doubt led to an Oscar nomination she followed with another Academy Award nominated performance as TV chef Julia Child and Julie enjoy charming she was so authentically herself no apologies and she had a great love of life and a great spirit and sort of joie de vivre that was infectious Julia Julia intertwine some life story of Julia Child Julie Powell film it looks at to develop the relationships that you have marriages and this wonderfully supportive man during the Julia gulia premiere Adams talked about what it was treated Meryl is - Amy what Julia Child is - Julie pound she's this great influence and this presence that's there even when she isn't she cleared the path for others to take and we're lucky enough to walk down that road because Julie and Julia is about cooking the stars a bone culinary expertise was questioned so a lot of foolish I'm not such a good cook but I got better on this movie everybody's happier no said she gave 15 pounds plain Julia Child she followed her oscar-nominated performance in Julia Julia by voicing a character and fantastic mr. Fox you really are kind of a cool unquote fantastic Streep co-starred with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in the romantic comedy it's complicated and now in her 60s Meryl often makes two to four movies a year Meryl Streep success made her an industry legend now the popular actress begins the next stage of her career she had all of these opportunities available to her in the 80s as a leading lady now that she's moving into character roles and supporting roles I don't think there's any limit to what she's gonna be able to do oh my god it does that's thrilling thank you for watching this male Streep edition of movie stars join us next time for another inside look at your favorite stars of the big screen [Music]

Channel: Documentary Central

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Id: M87TtmBQQnQ

Length: 21min 45sec (1305 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 29 2018