| EXTENSIVE BIOGRAPHY | CHAPTER 06 | FROM AFRICA TO OUTBACK |
After box-office fails with her last two films, Meryl knew she should look again for a new character
that had potential. But as with "Sophie's Choice", her new favorite project didn't see her as the first
choice. Stating that director Sydney Pollack didn't think she was sexy enough to play the leading
role in "Out Of Africa", Streep auditioned in "a very low cut blouse and a push-up bra"
to draw the director's attention. Whether it was Streep's outfit or her willigness to take risks,
Pollack made the perfect choice and offered Streep the role in his film, which should become the
most beloved romance
of the 80's cinema. Co-starring Robert Redford, "Out of Africa" tells the
autobiographical story of Karen Blixen, who establishes a plantation in Africa. Her life is comp-licated
by a husband of convenience, a true love, troubles on the plantation, schooling of the natives and
the war. Meryl Streep developed her accent by listening to actual recordings of Isak Dinesen reading her
works. The three-hour-long lovestory and compli-ment to Africa was hailed by critics and audiences -
and was awarded with seven Academy Awards, | |
Creating a piece of cinema history: Robert Red-ford and Meryl Streep in "Out Of Africa" (1985) |
including Best Film and Best Director, Meryl was beaten
in the Best Actress category by Geraldine Page. She received nominations for the Golden
Globe and the BAFTA, winning honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the David
Di Donatello Award in 1986. And further - she gave birth to her third child, Grace Jane.
Her next film reteamed Streep with director Mike Nichols, who offered her the part of Rachel
Samstat in "Heartburn", the adaptation of Nora Ephron's autobiographical bestseller about her
failed wedding with Carl Bernstein, one of the famous reporters of the Washington Post,
who investigated the Watergate break-in and first cracked the Watergate scandal in August 1972,
which led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. Meryl joined another legendary
actor of the 70's. After first scenes were shot with Mandy Patinkin in the role of Bernstein
(who is named Mark Foreman), the actor was replaced by Jack Nicholson. The film itself is well
written and performed by
Streep, Nicholson - and supporting roles by Jeff Daniels, Catherine
O'Hara, Maureen Stapleton and Stockard Channing - but neither better or worse than the many comedy
dramas that released in the mid-80's. Streep and Nicholson continued their on-screen relationship
and both joined director Hector Babenco
in his hopelessly sad drama "Ironweed", based on the novel by William Kennedy. Nicholson plays a
schizophrenic drifter in 1938's Albany, who spends Halloween in his home town after returning there
for the first | |
Meryl Streep as homeless Helen Archer in "Ironweed" and as Rachel in "Heartburn" |
time in decades. If moviegoers ever had problems to recognize Streep, it was in "Ironweed".
Hidden under a felted hat and dressed in dirty rags, she plays Nicholson's companion Helen Archer,
who was a successful singer several years ago, before she lost her home - and her mind. While
"Ironweed" was hard to watch, it grossed 7 million dollars in the USA and recognized its stars,
Nicholson and Streep, with nominations for both the Golden Globe and the Oscar.
Having a full schedule, Meryl had to pass out a project that was close to her heart - playing
Evita Peron in a movie version directed by Oliver Stone. While not much is known about the
pre-production of this film, the New York Times reported on Meryl's drop-out in September 1989:
Citing exhaustion she attributed to a heavy schedule of work, Meryl Streep has withdrawn from
Oliver Stone's film version of the hit musical "Evita". Filming was to begin in February in
Seville, Spain. "Evita" is based on the life of Eva Duarte de Peron, an undistinguished
actress who achieved immense political influence after becoming the second wife of Juan Peron,
the President of Argentina. Mr. Stone reacted to Ms. Streep's withdrawal by saying: ''I still
want very much to see "Evita" made. I am looking toward the future and the new singer-actresses
that are coming up." The film was eventually made in 1996, directed by Alan Parker and starring
Madonna. But there was another project to be released that would be mentioned for years
to be one of Meryl's career's best.
While Meryl's character all had in common to be loveable women, maybe to except the aloholic Helen
in "Ironweed", she now took on a part to play Lindy Chamberlain, the mosted hated mother in Australia.
The woman, who lived a normal life with her husband and her three children had to witness how a dingo
stole her baby daughter out of the family's tent during a vacation trip to the Ayers Rock in 1981.
The Chamberlain's tragic story covered all magazines in Australia, but Lindy's cold radiation and
tearless acception of her child's loss made the Australian population distrustfully. When the police
notes some apparent inconsistencies in
her story, a witch hunt is opened by the media which results
a condem-nation by the Australian court in 1982, sending Lindy Chamberlain to prison for life.
Meryl Streep visited Lindy in prison, before she began to learn the Australian accent and trans-formed
completely into Chamberlain. Again, she was first unrecog-nizable with a black wig and huge glasses.
In the middle of the filmmaking, the project seemed to become more up to date as | |
For "A Cry in the Dark", the story of Lindy Chamberlain, Meryl won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes
Film Festival |
ever expected. In 1987, new evidence in the Chamberlain case was found that prove Lindy's innocence, she was released
from jail the same year. "A Cry in the Dark" is a masterfully chronicle of the case that shocked
and eventually shamed a whole continent. And once again, it featured a tour-de-force performance by
Meryl Streep. She was awarded with the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, the American Film
Institute's Best Actress award and nominations again for the Golden Globe and the Oscar.
Making films for ten years now, Meryl Streep has achieved an amount of honors, other actors need
a lifetime for. She won two Oscars and eight nominations as well as three Golden Globes and five
People's Choice Award. But it was another number that would dominate her career from now on. Turning
40!
