A Song of Africa

Sydney Pollack, Kurt Luedtke, John Barry, Judith Thurman, Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep notes in the documentary: “We were shooting the washing-the-hair scene with some hippos in the water who were not imported like some of the lions were brought from California. These were native hippos, who, you know, didn’t know that this was Robert Redford and me (laughs). If you get between them and the water, apparently, or between them and their offspring they’ll just eat you. So I was more scared of doing the hair-washing scene then doing the than the beating-up-the-lion scene. Sydney wanted a sensual quality to her that would go with the landscape, as he saw it, of Africa. He didn’t think that I was… sexy enough… to play Isak Dinesen that sexpot (laughs). But you know, it’s a movie and I understood that. But I went for the meeting, I finally wrangled a meeting. And I went, pathetically, in a very low-cut blouse with a push-up bra. I’m very ashamed to say it, but I did. And it worked. That’s the really sad part.”