If acting were viewed solely as a competition, Meryl Streep would be gunning for victory. She holds the record for the most Academy award acting nominations, notching up 18 in January last year – Jack Nicholson and Audrey Hepburn peak at 12 each, closest behind her. Beyond the Oscars, she’s built a massively successful career over the past 37 years, showing comedic flair, dramatic grit and even a fine spot of singing when the mood has struck.
She transforms into a witch for Into the Woods, out in the UK this weekend and previously released on Thursday 8 January in Australia and in America on Christmas Day last year. As a result, we’re asking the tough question: which five Streep performances are her most impressive? Let us know which you would add to our list.
Death Becomes Her
By no means an overall Oscar contender, Robert Zemeckis’s ridiculous 1992 black comedy about youth, immortality and outlandish cattiness showed off Streep’s comedic chops. Let’s be clear: this film takes feminism back about 100 years, relentlessly latching a woman’s worth to her physical appearance for lols. But, if you can stomach the over-the-top sleaze and cheese, you’ll find Streep sauntering through one of her sharpest, silliest roles.
Kramer vs Kramer
Streep held her own beside Dustin Hoffman, shining in her role as working mother Joanna Kramer. The 1979 Robert Benton drama was centred on a couple’s custody battle for their son, and saw Streep hit the mark in her role as a driven, single-minded woman who decides she wants her child back after leaving him and his father 15 months earlier. She picked up best supporting actress awards at both the Oscars and Golden Globes, along with a handful of critics’ awards and other nominations.
The Iron Lady
Margaret Thatcher detractors may not have enjoyed seeing the former prime minister’s life brought to the big screen in this 2012 biopic, but Streep played her almost perfectly. The pursed lips; the seeping signs of ageing; the fairly spot-on accent – all combined for a role steeped in pretty top-notch mimicry. Given her Golden Globe, Bafta and Oscar best actress gongs for the role, it looks like a few critics agreed, too.
Manhattan
When Streep plays mean and cold, she truly lacerates. In Woody Allen’s 1979 film – voted his directorial best by Guardian readers in 2013, no less – she portrayed writer Jill Davis, one of the many women who sweep into Isaac Davis’s (Allen) life. After leaving Isaac for a woman, and documenting their failed marriage in a tell-all book, she turns up as a coolly blasé thorn in his side. Also: cheekbones.
Sophie’s Choice
And now for the tears. Streep’s turn as Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish refugee living in America, was built on an adapted storyline seen through the eyes of the man lodging in the house her character shared with her partner. Zawistowska harboured a brutal secret revealed at the end of the film, and hinted at throughout with a series of flashbacks. For her harrowing role, Streep picked up that fine Golden Globe, Oscar and Bafta trio again, on top of a smattering of critics’ awards.
Now, over to you, for your thoughts. Cue cries of “no Deer Hunter/The Hours/Doubt/Julie & Julia??” Share your favourite Streep class acts.
