|
CHEERS AND LOATHING
Magazine / Source: The Calgary Sun, January 2003 |
If anyone should be exempt from suffering a crisis of confidence, it's Meryl Streep.
She's one of the most respected and praised actors in the history of cinema, yet Streep insists "each time I begin a film, I have varying degrees of confidence and self-loathing.
"I have a lot of doubt and I always tell my husband (Don Gummer) I've never felt so distressed before.
"He says: 'You always do this. You always, always, always do this. You dismantle yourself before you begin. This is what you do. This is your process.'
"I hate that he considers my crises of confidence my process. These are real feelings that I go through. These are real doubts and fears."
In addition to her Oscars for The Deer Hunter and Sophie's Choice, Streep has her Emmy, Golden Globe, American Comedy, Australian Film Institute, British Film, Cannes and Italian Film awards, and more than two dozen international critics awards.
Streep, who shares the honour of the most Oscar nominations (12) with Katharine Hepburn, could conceivably set a record next month with nominations for her stellar turns in both Adaptation and The Hours.
In Adaptation, which opens Friday, she plays Susan Orlean, the best-selling author
of the non-fiction book The Orchid Thief whose life is exposed and turned on end by Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage).
Starting Jan. 17 in The Hours, Streep plays Clarissa Vaughn, a contemporary woman who's nursing a former lover (Ed Harris) through the final stages of AIDS.
Ironically, Streep turned down the initial offers to star in both films.
Adaptation Trepidation
"They were two of the most interesting and ambiguous scripts I'd seen in a long time. In both cases that was what was so appealing but I also had serious reservations," recalls Streep.
"I thought The Hours was just very delicate and underwritten. I knew it would either succeed or fail on the strength of how it would play, so I had to meet with the director (Stephen Daldry) to see if he had a vision about it."
Streep met with Daldry and discovered "he had a strong and specific vision and that always appeals to me. I guess I'm just bit of a baby. I need to be let in gently and that's what Stephen did for me in our meeting."
Streep says she immediately recognized the genius in Kaufman's clever, satirical screenplay for Adaptation, but she was "worried I wasn't right for it. I didn't know if (director) Spike Jonze intended to make fun of the characters. I didn't know if I was reading the script accurately."
Once again Streep met with the director who'd sent her an offer.
"He assured me that he and Charlie were going to take a straightforward approach to these people. It was not going to be overtly ironic. That interested me, so I said yes."
Streep says she is eternally grateful she signed on to Adaptation.
"Spike was better prepared than almost any director I've ever worked with. He was making a really complicated movie on a small budget, so he came completely prepared. Every day he knew exactly what his day would be and he accomplished it."
As focused as Jonze proved to be, Streep recalls the director was also "whimsical and that made it feel as if we were playing rather than working -- but it was steel cold intelligence that was guiding us at every turn."
Streep says Jonze's set is "very easy going but he and everyone in the crew dress in suits and ties. It was so sweet. I thought that's how he always dresses."
Streep was in for quite a surprise when she attended the press junket for Adaptation. She wore a suit, only to discover "he and Charlie looked like a couple of orangutans. Now I understand where their bizarre take on movies come from." (Jonze and Kaufman collaborated on 1999's Being John Malkovich.)
Married... with Critics
Streep has been married to Gummer since 1978. They have four children -- Henry, Mary Willa, Grace and Louisa -- who Streep says can be her harshest off-camera critics.
"Yes I get the 'Mother, don't be so over dramatic,' when I'm trying to discipline them.
"We get into heated discussions about tones of voice. Those kids will say anything to get their way."
Just before Christmas, Streep finished shooting the six-hour HBO AIDS drama Angels in America with an all-star cast, including Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Gambon and Simon Callow, with Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Silkwood) directing.
"We started working on it last February. It's been like making three films. It's a big, big, amazing and important thing and I'm proud to be a part of it."
