Meryl Streep Felt ‘so Old and Jaded’ Before She Won Her Third Oscar
Meryl Streep is one of only a few actors who’ve managed to win multiple Oscars. But she considered her third Oscar win particularly special, as it showed her she was still passionate about the awards season.
What did Meryl Streep win her last Oscar for
Streep scored her first two Oscars fairly early in her career. She won a Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Kramer vs. Kramer. A few years later would see her win her second Oscar, and her first Best Actress award, for Sophie’s Choice. She’d be nominated for an Oscar several times afterwards. But it wasn’t until 2012 that she picked up another Best Actress Oscar for The Iron Lady. The historical biopic saw Streep portray the first ever female British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
It was an exciting win for Streep, who admittedly still enjoyed winning the prize.
“Oh, I was thrilled,” she once told The Chic Spy. “I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name, and you just go into sort of a, I don’t know, a white light. And it was just thrilling. It was like I was a kid again. I mean it was, I was a kid when I won this, like, 30 years ago. Two of the nominees were not even conceived.”
Streep also summed up how she felt winning an Oscar for The Iron Lady compared to winning her previous Oscar.
“I read a poem yesterday, and it had nothing to do with this but one of the lines jumped out and it said, ‘It is strange to be here once as it is to return.’ So, that’s true. It is a strange, the whole thing is strange,” she said.
Meryl Streep once shared her least favorite Oscar-nominated role
Given Streep’s whopping 21 Oscar nominations, the actor has been a familiar and frequent presence at the awards ceremony. She’s been recognized by the Academy so many times, she had trouble on Jimmy Kimmel Live remembering all the films she was nominated for. But there was one Oscar-nominated role that Streep admitted she had a terrible time doing.
In 2006, Streep played the strict and callous magazine editor Miranda Priestly in Anne Hathaway’s Devil Wears Prada. She applied method acting to immerse herself in the role, which, in hindsight, she realized was a mistake.
“It was horrible,” she once told Entertainment Weekly. “I was [miserable] in my trailer. I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed! I said, ‘Well, it’s the price you pay for being boss!’ That’s the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!”
Has any actor won more Oscars than Meryl Streep?
Only one female actor in history managed to win more Oscars than Streep. Legendary star Katherine Hepburn won the Best Actress award four times. The films that earned her the honor were Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond. Ironically, the late actor had a close eye on Streep, but allegedly had a few criticisms of her successor.
In biographer Scott Berg’s book about Hepburn Kate Remembered, Berg recalled a few conversations where Hepburn complained about Streep’s acting.
“Meryl Streep was [Hepburn’s] least favorite actress onscreen,” Berg wrote according to Far Out.
Hepburn reportedly found Streep’s performance to be too technical and cerebral. However, when Streep won a Lifetime Achievement Award, the veteran star showed nothing but respect to her predecessor.
“I felt like I’d butted in line in front of Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn,” Streep said. “Hello? How did this happen?”
It’s worth noting that, although Hepburn won more Oscars, Streep has more nominations.
