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MERYL STREEP'S DEVLISH NEW ROLE
Magazine / Source: The Sunday Telegraph, August 2006 |
MERYL Streep is a bit mystified by the effort that some women put into dressing up. Even after appearing in The Devil Wears Prada as the ultimate fashion diva, she's still puzzled by the world of haute couture.
"In the movie, I have 60 outfits and each one of them had to be co-ordinated with the shoes and the belt and the bag and the earrings and the jacket and this and that,'' Streep laughs.
In the universe of high fashion where size 0 is the new size 2 and a bad-hair day can end your career, Streep found herself eyeing price tags with a mixture of shock and awe.
"One of the handbags I use in the film cost $12,000, which is almost inconceivable to me,'' she says...
"You readjust your whole way of thinking, and it's just insane.''
On one of the hottest days of the year, Streep is cooling off at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Manhattan, looking comfortable in simple black trousers and a floral print shirt.
At 57, she exhibits a freewheeling sense of humour that runs counter to her blistering dramatic turns in The Deer Hunter, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice and The Hours.
In Prada, Streep plays a character unlike any other on her resume. As the demanding editor/dominatrix of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly dictates trends.
She also makes life a living hell for her assistants, especially Andrea (Anne Hathaway), who is determined to succeed despite being a fashion novice.
The Devil Wears Prada is based on a 2003 bestseller by Lauren Weisberger, a former gofer for Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of Vogue.
The similarities between Wintour and Miranda Priestly are striking, but Streep insists she never set out to do a simple impersonation.
"It was much more fun for me to make this uber-boss out of my own experience,'' she says.
Streep, who is well-acquainted with Hollywood powerbrokers of both sexes, found inspiration from unlikely sources.
"Unfortunately, we don't have enough women in power so most of my models for this character were of the male persuasion,'' she notes.
"Compared to the people that I used as inspirations, Miranda is well-behaved. She's almost like a diplomat compared to some very, very, very powerful people in the film business.''
Even though Miranda fits the bill as a boss from hell, Streep doesn't see her as a stereotypical Queen of Mean. The actress attempted to skate the edge between the comically nasty and the genuinely tragic.
"The anticipation for the film is almost bloody in that people are longing to go after Anna Wintour, or any woman in a powerful position,'' she says.
"People love this story because they think that the knives are out, and that makes for good anticipation at the box office. But I was interested in portraying a woman in a powerful position, and showing exactly how hard she has to work to stay there.''
In one scene written especially for the film, Miranda is glimpsed by Andrea sans make-up and imperious attitude.
But as the Hollywood Reporter noted in its rave review of the film, "Streep makes Miranda a bit sad and lonely without allowing for even an ounce of sympathy for her character.''
"It was very important to me to make Miranda three-dimensional,'' says Streep, a two-time Oscar winner and a recipient of a record-breaking 13 Oscar nominations.
"Personally, I think that she's an exacting, highly-disciplined, demanding and ambitious person who doesn't necessarily take the time for all the social lubricants that help make the workplace graceful and fun.
"I'm an extremely undisciplined person and in many ways the polar opposite of this character. And yet I really understand her. I admire some things about her, and see the bind that she's in as a woman.''
To its credit, Prada manages to be both a celebration of style and a condemnation of fashion's emphasis on youth and super-slimness.
"I think about those (images) everyday,'' says Streep.
"I have three daughters and that kind of stuff really affected me as a teenager. (Fashion) is highly destructive. Sometimes you just have to walk out in defiance of it and just be yourself.''
The outfits that Streep wears in the movie were mostly designed by heavy-hitters like Valentino, Bill Blass and Oscar de la Renta. Costume designer Patricia Field, who previously worked with Prada director David Frankel on Sex and the City, was forced by budgetary restraints to rely on donations from her designer friends.
"Pat's achievement is amazing,'' says Streep.
"She put this movie together with no money. It's as if they made a movie about aerospace and they decided to shoot it out of a garage. Clothes are central, and they didn't save any money in the budget for them.''
To hear some of the film's younger cast members talk, Streep is nearly as scary a presence as Miranda Priestly.
"As a person, Meryl is just absolutely delightful,'' says Hathaway.
"I couldn't say enough nice things about her. But as an actress, it was taking a cold bath of terror everyday working with her. She's just so good.''
Emily Blunt, who plays another of Miranda's assistants, was similarly astonished by her co-star's ease in front of the camera.
"Meryl's just a force of nature,'' says Blunt.
"There's no one like her. There is no one who's done what she's done for so long with as much class and dignity. No one is such a chameleon. No one is as good as she is. It's as simple as that.''
Anyone who still needs proof that Streep is an acting powerhouse has to look no further than her current films.
With Prada out on September 28 followed by In A Prairie Home Companion, in which she plays the frumpy Yolanda Johnson, a small-time folk singer who is eons away from the stylish, big-time Miranda Priestly, it's just the beginning of a handful of Streep films on the way.
Others include The Ant Bully, in which she voices the Ant Queen, Dark Matter, a drama co-starring Val Kilmer, and Dirty Tricks, a Watergate comedy with Gwyneth Paltrow and Annette Bening.
