If you're wondering why Meryl Streep is loved by many, the answer is simple: she's the most versatile actor in Hollywood. Early in her career, the three-time Oscar winner was already labeled a "rising star." This was back in her theater days in the mid-'70s. At one point, the press even wrote: "Meryl Streep. Remember the name, you'll be hearing it again." And we still do, almost five decades later.
But how exactly did she go from playing Zofia "Sophie" Zawistowski in Sophie's Choice to killing it as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada and becoming Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady? Well, Streep has quite the career strategy. Here's how she managed to avoid being typecast.
Meryl Streep Developed A 'She Can Play Anything' Brand Early In Her Career
When Streep entered Hollywood in the late '70s, every actress was fighting for the same lead roles. But according to YouTuber Be Kind Rewind, the actress didn't struggle to land them because of her versatility. "In her first season [as a theater actress] in New York City alone, Meryl landed seven leading roles and nearly won a Tony for 27 Wagons Full of Cotton," said BKR's host Izzy. "In her first two years as a professional, Meryl was in Shakespearean comedies, a Brechtian musical, plays by Chekov and Tennessee Williams."
Before doing films, Streep's range was already compared to legendary figures in the industry. "Critics compared her to Buster Keaton for her physical comedy one moment and praised her as the female equivalent of Laurence Olivier," BKR continued. "She could be comical yet sturdy and mature. Perhaps more important than her ability to convincingly inhabit these characters is that she developed a reputation that she could. Meryl can play anything was pretty much the brand from the beginning."
The video essayist noted that Streep made wise choices in navigating her film career. "Meryl entered film with a few high-profile supporting roles that launched her as a verifiable and respected film actress by 1978," said Izzy. "By 1979 she had an Oscar for Kramer v Kramer... But it was in 1981 that Meryl finally landed a role that would bring acclaim for her versatility to a new medium — in The French Lieutenant's Woman, she played a dual role, essentially the perfect vehicle for showing range." The late film critic Roger Ebert even praised Streep for being "offhandedly contemporary one moment and then gloriously and theatrically Victorian the next."
Meryl Streep Stood Out By Playing Roles With Different Accents
Streep's performance in Sophie's Choice was once described as "a ravishing combination of technical skill and mysterious artistry." According to BKR, "part of what made her so effective was her affinity for accents." 11 of the Mamma Mia! star's 21 Oscar nominations involve foreign accents and other vocal affectations. By 1991, Streep was dubbed as "the woman of a thousand accents" by The New York Times. The YouTuber added that it's what sets the actress apart from other Hollywood actors.
Though Izzy clarified that accents are not Streep's secret to excellence per se, it shows that she's "trusted with a diversity of identities with a frequency her peers are not." Check out her filmography, and you'll see how she's managed to play women of different personas. "In the 1980s alone, she transitioned from a Polish Holocaust survivor to an Oklahoma labor activist, to a British fire in the French Resistance, to a Danish author, to a drunken Albany, to an Australian mother, and then some," said BKR.
By the time Streep won her second Oscar for Sophie's Choice in 1983, it "cemented her in Hollywood's hive mind as a genius." However, the Julie & Julia star didn't achieve the "greatest actress of her generation" title right away. People actually got bored with her in the '80s. "It wasn't really interesting anymore to see Meryl endure another tragedy as some variation of a foreign woman," Izzy said of that time. "She gained a reputation for intellectualizing her work, for not being organic, and for her 'humorless selection of characters.'"
Meryl Streep's 'The Devil Wears Prada' Saved Her From Being Typecast
After hitting a slump, Streep eventually found a way to re-engage her audience. "By the late '80s, we see an abrupt shift in the tone of her movies in a concerted effort to diversify her filmography," BKR noted. However, it wasn't quite enough. Even in the '90s and 2000s, the actress went for roles that merely sustained her work. It was 2006's The Devil Wears Prada that revived Streep's career. It's said to be where "Meryl became Meryl."
"Streep whose dramatic performances tend toward the overwound and accent heavy has found her second wind as a comedian," film critic Ella Taylor said of Streep's performance in the fashion flick. Another reviewer also explained why fans have fallen in love with Streep as Miranda Priestly. It's because "she's proving now, in a spectacularly attractive ate middle age, that she can do effortless as well as strenuous, ensemble as well as star, and enjoy rather than hide behind her talent."
