The acclaimed actress joined Stephen Colbert for the Late Show host’s annual Montclair Film fundraiser where she spoke about her role in Mary Poppins Returns and much more.
Meryl Streep is a three-time Oscar winner and is considered to be the greatest living actress. Earlier this year, she received her 21st Academy Award nomination and revealed some interesting facts about herself along with praising A Star is Born during Montclair Film Festival’s annual An Evening with Stephen Colbert.
During the nearly two-hour-long discussion, Streep recalled her early days as an actress and memorable experiences on the stage and screen. The actress repeatedly stressed that she didn’t set out to be a film or theatre actress and explained that part of what made her think she couldn’t be a “film actor,” was because “my nose was too big.”
When asked by an audience member how she overcame criticism involving her appearance, Meryl Streep responded, “The greatest gift in my career was not being cast as bombshell early in my career — even though I was one — because I could be a character actor.”
That led to a conversation about A Star is Born, as she and Colbert each ran a finger down their nose as Bradley Cooper’s character does with Lady Gaga’s Ally.
Streep said, “I’ve just seen A Star is Born, and I so related to that. It’s so true.”
Talking about the film, Colbert said, “You (Meryl Streep) could’ve played that (Lady Gaga’s) part in the film” to which Streep responded, “Oh honey, no. No way…nobody but Gaga!”
The actress also raved about the actor’s approach to helming a feature film. “It’s so breezily shot,” she shared. “It’s not actor shot. [Some] actors who direct give the actors too much air. They don’t cut as brutally as you need to in order to move the story. To them, the character is more interesting than the forward movement of the narrative. And Bradley … he gave himself the stuff he needed and then he’d move off. … kept it moving. He was on his own back a lot. I liked that. Made you in the thing. You were in the thing. Brilliant.”
Streep also recommended other movies such as Chloé Zhao’s The Rider, Paul Schrader’s First Reformed — and not missing an opportunity to plug her own work, she also recommended her upcoming movie, Mary Poppins Returns, in which, Streep teased, she plays Poppins’ “cousin.”
Speaking about her character, Topsy, in the movie, she stated, “I’m very screwed up, a very screwed up character. But she’s very tolerant of me and she needs something from me so of course she’s nice to me.”
She further went on to say, “It’s fun. The movie is just great. I don’t say this about all my movies, but this is not my movie, this is Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda. This movie is so great; these children are beautiful; it’s like a little tiny gift to America at Christmas.”
– With information from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
