Meryl Streep Reveals the Actor Who Tried to Upstage Her
Meryl Streep: the indomitable actor who needs no introduction. The 3-time Academy Award winner and 21-time nominee behind The Iron Lady, Julie & Julia, and Florence Foster Jenkins, Streep embodies the very art that is acting, representing the ideal without ever appearing pompous or overflown.
Known for losing herself in every character she chooses to portray, Streep’s natural voice – from pitch to inflection – disappears, along with any identifying gesture, tick, or quirk when she steps into a role.
If you’ve watched a Meryl Streep interview, you will quickly realize that the woman sitting across from James Lipton, Ellen DeGeneres, or Jimmy Kimmel is never the woman on the silver screen. They never overlap. They never share dispositions. Streep is considered a living legend in her industry; an actress to be emulated, admired, and most of all, questioned, for the knowledge she holds knows no bounds.
Currently starring in Big Little Lies alongside Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Laura Dern, Streep’s presence alone has helped placed this formerly considered “niche” show in the spotlight, for all audiences to enjoy. Given her sheer degree of talent and admirable humility, you would think no one would ever dare try to upstage The Queen. However, that has not been the case.
Meryl Streep on the men she’s acted alongside, and the one who tried to upstage her
During an interview with Morley Safer, Meryl Streep discussed the several famous men she has worked across from. From Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson to Clint Eastwood, Kevin Kline, and Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep has worked alongside some of the most incomparable actors of our time.
Dustin Hoffman is known for “shocking” Meryl Streep – going off script and slapping her just a little too hard in one scene – while she remembers Jack Nicholson for bringing humor and heart to set every day. However, when she talked about Kevin Kline, a funny truth was revealed. When asked about working on Sophie’s Choice, Meryl Streep stated:
“I remember coming home from that experience and saying to my husband, we can’t do anything wrong…When you make a movie you have a good day you have a bad day [implies this was not the case]…It was really a wonderful experience.”
CBS (Morley Safer)
Noting Sophie’s Choice as a positive experience, Streep goes on to explain that – when they worked on the stage together – Kline wasn’t the most gracious co-star. When asked about doing theatre with Kevin Kline, Streep stated, “That’s a different story. He does try to upstage me. I’ve spoken to him about it.”
Meryl Streep laughs it off, for this occurrence is in her past and there are likely no hard feelings laying around, waiting to explode. However, Meryl Streep hasn’t been on the stage in many years. The question is: would Kevin Kline – with the reputation Meryl Streep has built since – try to upstage her again? They will have to do a Broadway production together for us to find out.
Inside Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline’s professional relationship
Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline are two actors who always find their way back to one another. They boast incomparable chemistry – and despite attempts from Kline to upstage Streep on the stage – they remain great co-stars.
From Sophie’s Choice and A Prairie Home Companion to Theater of War, and most recently, Ricki and the Flash, Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline work well together and, to put it simply, make for enjoyable cinema.
Fans love seeing these two play opposite one another; thus, it’s unlikely that their time on-screen together has come to end; however, now that Meryl Streep’s kids have grown, maybe she and Kline will find themselves back on stage together, and cause Broadway fans everywhere to rush to the theatre.
