After seeing Meryl Streep win her third Academy Award on Sunday night and give such a moving and humbling speech I have new respect for her and her talent.
I was there when Meryl won her first Oscar in the category of Supporting Actress for 1979's "Kramer Vs. Kramer" where she played the wife opposite Dustin Hoffman battling for the custody of their young son. This was her second nomination as she had been nominated in the same category in 1978 for "The Deer Hunter:. I was 16 so the subject matter wasn't much of a draw for me but we went to movies back then just to go to movies. It was a good movie and she was good in it so young and really still a new face. Dustin won an Oscar, Meryl won an Oscar and the film won best picture. At the time I didn't think much of it.
In the following years very short years Meryl Streep was every where on the screen, and in 1982 she was nominated for her lead role in "Sophie's Choice". Still at this time we didn't have the media like we do today, the hype for movies was more subdued yet I remember the buzz when this movie hit and it all had to do with Meryl. Based on a novel by I believe William Styron it is a haunting story about a Holocaust survivor and the choice she had to make and the horror of life that followed. A hard film to watch at times it also starred Kevin Kline, and Peter McNichol.
Come Oscar time it was a contest between Meryl and another blonde Jessica Lange who had broken away from the remake of "King Kong" to the gritty bio "Frances" detailing the life of 30's actress Frances Farmer. Meryl ultimately won Best Actress and Lange also picked up an Oscar that night for her supporting role in "Tootsie".
Following her win for "Sophies Choice" Meryl worked non stop for the next three decades in big epics, "Out of Africa", bio-pics "Silkwood", Dramas ""A Cry In the Dark", comedies "Death Becomes Her". She has never not worked and racked up 14 more nominations in 29 years it was rare not to see her name on the nominees list in a year when she had pictures released. Of those fourteen nominations only one was in the Supporting Actress category all others were in the best actress category.
In 2009 Meryl was nominated in ''Julie and Julia" in the role of beloved chef Julia Child. Meryl's
transformation was spot on and many thought the role would bring her third Oscar to no avail a little movie entitled "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock got in the way. That night when Sandra won and thanked Meryl in her speech no one beamed more than Meryl.
I was one who always poo pooed Meryl winning another Oscar she already had two did she really need another? Last Sunday I had to agree with the Academy yes she does deserve another and she got it. Was it strictly of "The Iron Lady" I doubt it was for the nearly 30 years of wonderful performances on film that she has given us. I thought Viola Davis of "The Help" was going to win however in retrospect it seemed that in the weeks leading up to the Awards Ms. Davis got a bit uppity about beating Meryl and I think offended some voters with her bravado. Had she waited until all ballots had been signed sealed and delivered things may have had a different outcome.
I for one am happy for Meryl Streep. Never her greatest fan but very appreciative of her roles I applaud her win and yes i think she really, really deserves it.
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