April 06, 2006 | Coolidge Corner Theatre

In 2006, Meryl Streep accepted the Cooldige Award by the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation in Brookline, Massachusetts. The event was combined with the premiere of “A Prairie Home Companion”, for which director Robert Altman and actors Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly attended as well. Before the award was handed to Meryl, she and author Susan Orlean, whom Meryl portrayed in “Adaptation” took part in a panel discussion that was hosted by the New York Times’ Janet Maslin.

I’m very proud of the profession when I see other people do it. When I see certain performances, I think, “I do that too. I’m part of that family of people who do this mysterious thing.” I can’t hold onto it and certainly don’t feel I deserve all the tributes that have been hurled my way, but there’s something in it that must have to do with what people want or need or get from actors. I think it has to do with our common humanity – everything going back through Charlemagne to East Africa. We all share the same DNA and it wakes up in certain moments when we watch performances and we join to disparate characters and events. It’s kind of this throbbing feeling that we’re all in it together.