Remember when Meryl's career was in the toilet?

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The shorter answer is who DIDN'T she blow?

While her career had a notable snag in the early 90s (culminating in her losing The Remains of the Day to Emma Thompson) she replaced her agent with Kevin Huvane and has been pretty consistent since "Bridges of Madison County). She received 5 Oscar nominations in this so called "toilet period" that you describe.

Clearly, OP is an idiot.

But I do wish she'd take a rest. I don't think I've ever become so sick of seeing somebody in practically every movie made.

R3 has it right.

She came back with Bridges of Madison County and The River Wild in the mid-90s.

[quote]who did she blow to get her career back on track?

Clearly someone who didn't mind her pointy chin laying waste to their scrotum.

Whoever decided not to hire her for The Remains of the Days is a genius. She would have ruined that movie with her click-click acting and another one of her pathetic accents. That is such a beautiful movie. But the movie is really all about Anthony Hopkins - Emma Thompson is more of a supporting character. If Meryl was cast she'd probably demand to have more dialogue.

R7 it was her good buddy Mike Nichols

Meryl took it as a BETRAYAL and they had a falling out for a time.

Is Meryl such an egotist that she feels she qualifies for every a-list movie role that there is? She can be good, but she isn't always.

I remember it well. We both were guest voices on [italic]The Simpsons[/italic] on separate occasions. The difference is, [bold]I[/bold] was asked back!

I can't imagine anyone but Emma Thompson in that role in The Remains of the Day. One of her absolute best.

Is there a good, meaty leading lady role that Meryl has ever declined because she herself thought she wasn't right for it? I think that's a more interesting question than the OP's very stupid one.

SO SICK OF HER. Take a year off - or three!

My career was never so dire as to do ongoing television.

I never had to toil on a program broadcast on the outer rings of a satellite channel, or be the star of a program where snatching my own wig from my head has been a plot point.

Ah Glenn, one woman's toilet is another woman's spa

Could we please go one fucking day without a thread on this woman? I mean, my God... enough already.

R25 has stated her boundaries.

Hi G at R15!

She refused to screen test for Sweet Dreams. It is kinda beneath a two time Oscar winner.

She desperately wanted the part, but to test?

The role went to Jessica Lange

Why the obsession with her?

You come to a gay website to ask why we're obsessed with a notable actress with a long career, R19?

Seriously? Where did you stumble in from, hon?

How many Oscar noms has she gotten since her comeback in the mid-2000s? It seems as if it's mandatory now that she gets one.

2002 - Best Supporting Actress, Adaptation.

2006 - Best Actress, The Devil Wears Prada

2008 - Best Actress, Doubt

2009 - Best Actress, Julie & Julia

2011 - Best Actress, The Iron Lady (winner)

2013 - Best Actress, August: Osage County

I still can't believe they gave her an oscar for The Iron Lady. That was probably the worst oscar win since Don Ameche's.

The only nomination out of those R22 listed that the bitch actually deserved was for Adaptation, and that's only because it wasn't her usual SNL imitation performance and because she's tolerable only in small, supporting doses.

I agree with R23. Streep's performance in The Iron Lady is not just bad, the movie itself is virtually unwatchable. Hold that performance up to her brilliant, non-winning work in Silkwood and The Bridges of Madison County and others and it's just an embarrassment. She seemed to really want it that year though wearing her Oscar Gold dress and everything, so whatever.

I love her performance in Adaptation. That was definitely an award-worthy turn. Such a real human being portrayed on the screen.

Out of Africa was on TV yesterday. Time has not been kind to that movie. And Meryl sucks in it. You know there's something wrong with your performance when even Robert Redford comes off more spontaneous than you.

I always thought that Klaus Maria Brandauer and Suzannah Hamilton were the best parts of Out of Africa.

Meryl is really at her most mannered in that film. It's not a grotesque performance by any means, but certainly not in her top tier.

Robert Redford is so dreamy in it. And Iman!

Stuff I hadn't thought about much before DL:

circumcision

Ginny from billing

Meryl Streep's career

click, click, click

Seriously though, I just watched "August: Osage County" and my goodness did she ever stink. I knew she would of course, which was why I rented it in the first place- so I could take a bath in my dislike of how mannered she is. Even so, I do wish she'd go away.

click, click, click

I see you, Meryl. I fucking see you.

And so does this person.

Kisses,

The Iron Lady Oscar was her lifetime achievement award Oscar for racking up so many nominations.

Though she won two, she was becoming the Susan Lucci of the Oscars!

Turning to Streep’s numerous Oscar nominations, comparisons to Susan Lucci and that actress’ evasive Emmy for All My Children emerged during the Q&A with Streep. “You know, I’m sure Susan Lucci is happy with her career and the longevity and fulfillment it has given her and that’s sort of how I feel,” Streep said.

I'd date her "comeback" to Adaptation in 2002. Yes, she had some critical acclaim and nominations in the '90's but her second golden age started in 2002.

The lull in her career was between 1991 and 1994

She got her mojo back in 1995 with The Bridges of Madison County and The River Wild.

Still don't get it. Do you use her to work out feelings of inadequacy? People say the same things over and over again, as if you feel no one listens to you.

Did Meryl and Glenn ever have any kind of feud or is it a purely a Datalounge injoke?

They did once work together, in The House of the Spirits, 1993.

THOUGHTS?

Wow, that's awful. Is the Witch supposed to be "special" in this version?

Isn't it in the toilet as we speak?

R22 is Meryl

The River Wild was a comeback?! Funny, when you watch it, it seems like a low point for all involved. Forgettable rubbish.

It's a pastime here. Streep is the most recognized actress, she works a lot and has been working for around 40 years, she's 65, so she is a sitting target. It will probably get more ugly on these boards as she and her hating queens age here. My only clarification or points to feed your ritualized frenzy:

I don't think her career has ever been "in the toilet." She has always been an A-lister, and clearly has never gone without work. The River Wild and Bridges of Madison County probably propped her back up to an A when she was in danger of falling to a B between 40 and 45.

I feel bad for her re: Mike Nichols. She canceled Letterman and is probably grieving.

I love that Into the Woods is a giant studio gamble - go big or go home.

R30 is correct. Adaptation was the comeback. Watch the clip of her winning the Golden Globe. The audience is pleasantly surprised as is M herself. It was a reminder of how great she could be. She was already a legend, of course, but that movie showed her stripped bare of accents, wigs, and drama. Its a fun, light performance in a offbeat movie. I think what was charming until maybe 2008 was that she was genuinely surprised and thrilled that she was back at an age when most actresses are washed up (or on cable series). Since around "Doubt" though she's become insufferable and has started picking shitty projects.

She lost me when she spent an entire Oscar campaign season talking up Viola Davis (a shrewd marketing plan to make herself look humble and admirable so that she would have a chance of winning even though we had already become sick of her) and then when she won, making some insufferable wisecrack in her acceptance speech about now having something to replace a leg of a wobbly coffee table.

Viola must have wanted to strangle her.

[quote] The River Wild was a comeback?! Funny, when you watch it, it seems like a low point for all involved. Forgettable rubbish.

Same person who feels only man can star in an action film.

her comeback started with Bridges of Madison County.

Followed up with Marvin's Room, Before and After and Oscar nominations for One True Thing and Music of the Heart

Bridges was a success (and one of her greatest performances) but it was not the beginning of a comeback streak. Before and After bombed and Diane Keaton stole Marvin's Room from under her (in any event, that movie did no business either). Her next two Oscar noms were not in successful movies and she was clearly the fifth filler - and certainly she wasn't considered marketable.

Her comeback did in fact begin with Adaptation. She cracked that she hadnt been up on a stage getting an award since the Plasticine era - and at the time it was funny and not faux humility because it was true.

Then with Prada (her last "great" performance, IMO) she became a bona fide box office draw and the rest is history.

1990 Postcards from the Edge, 1992 Death Becomes Her (bad film, but good box office) 1994 The River Wild

So when was this so called slump you crass rude people accuse me of having?

Meryl would have to die in a violent car crash to get any respect here, and even then people would say she phoned it in.

People forget that La Streep was in a slump in the late '80s/early '90s. She was only making one film per year and all her movies in that period bombed: HEARTBURN (1986), IRONWEED (1987), A CRY IN THE DARK (1988), SHE-DEVIL (1989), POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990), DEFENDING YOUR LIFE (1991), DEATH BECOMES HER (1992), THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS (1993).

In fact, she hadn't had a genuine hit since 1985's OUT OF AFRICA, which was both a critical, financial ($128 million on a $28 million budget), and Oscar success (winning 7 Oscars, including Best Picture & Director). THE RIVE WILD(1994) was a modest hit and her name was thrown around as a possible Oscar contender; she did get a Golden Globe nod and was one of the first five women ever to be nominated for a SAG.

1995 was her big comeback year. THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was a smash hit ($182 million on a $22 million budget) and she was Oscar-nominated again after a 5-year drought (her longest ever). Since then, she's been nominated every two to three years.

Her performance in A Cry in the Dark is severely underrated, and I say this as someone who isn't a fan. It and her performance in Adaptation are my favorites. I'm also partial to her cameo in Manhattan. Like someone said upthread, she's great in small doses.

Her Hannah Pitt almost ruined Angels in America for me, though I thought she was good as the rabbi.

Oh my God! You talk about her films? Outraged!

[quote]She lost me when she spent an entire Oscar campaign season talking up Viola Davis (a shrewd marketing plan to make herself look humble and admirable so that she would have a chance of winning even though we had already become sick of her) and then when she won, making some insufferable wisecrack in her acceptance speech about now having something to replace a leg of a wobbly coffee table.

Streep owes most of her success to shrewd marketing plans. She used press agentry to plant the seed early that she was the best actress of her generation, and gullible critics swallowed the baseless hype. And they still do.

The biggest B.S. about Streep is that she's not ambitious or hungry for awards, that she's just so lauded because she's so talented. In reality, everything she does, onscreen and off, is geared towards winning oscars. Many of her countless shitty performances are shitty precisely because she's trying to give a quote/unquote "award worthy" performance instead of trying to give a good one. And she campaigned like mad behind the scenes for that Iron Lady Oscar, while faking it for the cameras that she preferred Viola to win.

Thank God she didn't get Remains of the Day, she'd have ruined the movie like she single handledly ruined Doubt with her hammy overacting.

I don't buy the BS above. Once she became a star she has stayed pretty consistent. Great actress and clearly has a big audience. Queens here who rip her to shreds would never be able to act and are extremely jealous haters.

You don't buy what, exactly? That she didn't hire a press agent straight out of Yale who branded her as the best, which the press dutifully parroted? All of that is a demonstrable fact that can be confirmed. It's an open secret that that's where the Streep hype originated.

Or you don't believe she campaigned like hell behind the scenes for her third Oscar, ano only pretended for the cameras she wanted Viola to win? That too is no great secret and self evident to anyone with a working brain. No, she doesn't obsess over winning during times when she's just a filler nominee, but she definitely did want to win, badly, for three movies, Adaptation, Doubt, and TIL. She very much takes the Oscar race very seriously whenever she has a realistic chance of winning. Kathy Bates even mentioned on Ellen how pissed Meryl was when she was nommed for Adaptation, Bates for About Schmidt, and they both lost to Catherine Zeta Jones for Chicago. Make no mistake, she really wanted that third Oscar and was pissed off when she lost.

R25, I defy anyone to watch Out of Africa (at home) without using the FF button!

“It’s incredible — I’m 60, and I’m playing the romantic lead in romantic comedies,” she told Vanity Fair magazine’s January 2010 issue. “Bette Davis is rolling over in her grave.”

Always hated her for that remark.

2014 - Best Supporting Actress, Into the Woods

2014 - Best Actress, Florence Foster Jenkins

30 GG nominations?

Overrated

R53 Fuck, what a gigantic horse cunt. I actually feel sorry for Meryl - it looks like none of her films are gonna become timeless classics like "All About Eve". The only film she's made so far that is considered to be a classic by some is The Deer Hunter, but that's mostly thanks to Robert de Niro and Christopher Walken. No one remembers those boring scenes Meryl was in.

And does anyone think they'll be making Feud-style mini series about Meryl in 50 years? I don't think so. By that time Meryl will be mostly forgotten and the Academy will find some new "Greatest living American actress" to fanwank over.

I hope she drowns.

Your hope has been granted.

She HAS!

Huh, what?

OP tell us about your illustrious career.

R57, yes, yes, thanks for reminding me.

When I think of early Meryl roles that I cannot stand, I always think of her leading lady turns in The French Lt's Woman, Sophie's Choice, The Still of the Night, and Kramer.

I had forgotten how much I loathed her in Deer Hunter.

Meryl was actually compared to Bette Davis once in this hilarious review of The House of Spirits:

[quote] Meryl Streep, whom the more ageist among you may consider an unlikely teenager, skips around the set in a manner disturbingly reminiscent of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. Sometimes Streep’s character refuses to speak to her husband for years on end, possibly in an attempt to show how right Meryl would have been for Holly Hunter’s role in The Piano. After giving birth to Winona Ryder, Streep settles for a beatifically smug expression reminiscent of an ex-hooker accepting a third Oscar for humanitarian achievement.

Checkk this out.

Her dark years were the late '80s and early '90s when everyone was calling her Meryl Creep and people said she was too stiff and technical as an actress ("our lady of accents," "you can see the wheels turning," "only acts from the neck up" etc). That's why she did all those comedies (She Devil, Death Becomes Her). Even Susan Sarandon eclipsed her for a brief time as Hollywood's leading dramatic actress during this period (1990-1996).

Name one movie star who hasn't had a slow time in their career.

I agree that Kevin Huvane really helped her career in the 90’s, but she really has not had any kind of substantial lull over the past 40 years. She has only had two agents (Sam Cohn and Kevin Huvane) and they both did/do a great jobs for her. She has never had any kind of manager, unlike other actors.

She is highly thought by her fellow actors, so these haters calling her overrated show how little they know...

of^^^^

It's kinda weird how, one of her "bomb" movies, Death Becomes Her, has probably held up the best out of all her movies. She looks as if she's having a blast the entire time and it's infectious. I genuinely think it's the most enjoyable film she's made and she's incredibly funny in it.

All those big "important" films she did are hardly remembered, but Death Becomes Her still has a loyal fanbase.

She lost an Emmy a few nights ago.

Should we be concerned?

Second R47 in praising her turn in A Cry in the Dark, even Pauline Kael had to admit she was good in that. I also liked her in Dancing at Lughnasa and even One True Thing (both 1998), though neither film is memorable.

I wish Cherry Jones had been cast in the movie of Doubt, she was sensational in the original off-broadway production. Not quite a Kathy Bates/Michelle Pfeiffer in Frankie and Johnny situation, but close.

I think her career resurgence in the early 2000s was also due to The Hours and all the attention that movie received, though Adaptation holds up much better today.

As a person who grew up worshipping her from the first few years of her career, who thought she was unquestionably the greatest actress who ever performed onscreen (how many people saw PLENTY the day it opened?), I have grown to have very conflicted feelings about her. I find myself bored by her performances, flamboyant as they've sometimes been, and I've grown to dislike her sanctimonious public persona to the point that I almost can't stand to listen to her anymore. I got to a new level of disdain when she crucified those ABBA songs in the wretched "fun" (her excuse for making well-compensated dreck) movie MAMMA MIA! She sold out and in a big, unapologetic way. While that's a defensible choice on many levels, for me is cost her her aura of specialness.

R70 the big important films are definitely remembered however I do love “death becomes her” even though I haven’t seen it in years.

Meryl I think was heavily inspired by Bette Davis. The little I have seen of ms Davis work seems to show that. I love Meryl on screen. I hope she never retires.

[quote]Meryl I think was heavily inspired by Bette Davis. The little I have seen of ms Davis work seems to show that.

Um, no. Bette Davis was far more interested in Meryl. She was no damsel in distress.

Let's be honest:

How many truly great films has Meryl been in during the past 30 years? I'm not saying she hasn't appeared in movies that are enjoyable (Postcards..., Death Becomes..., The Devil...), but she's typically the highlight in the shit projects she chooses to do. Even The Iron Lady, for which she won an Oscar, was genuinely bad.

I actually think her best work since the 80s has been on television (Angels in America, Big Little Lies). She's not overrated by any means, but she's not quite a seal of approval in terms of quality.

Uh.

The 2015 Bump Troll.

This. Never. Happened.

R75 Don’t be too sure.

No, we can be sure, you dumb troll.

She wrote to Meryl, telling her that she saw her specifically as her successor as First Lady of the American Screen.

Meryl was so great in Adaptation because it was a risk-taker for her. It showed a different side to her - more spontaneous.

I do agree that Death Becomes Her holds up. She's very funny in it. She really delivers in quirky, off-beat comedies. It's when she is Oscar pandering (The Iron Lady, August: Osage County), she chews the scenery and becomes unbearable.

I loathe Goldie Hawn.

She ruins what could’ve been a good film.

Why didn’t M have her replaced with someone else?

Emma Thompson was miscast in REMAINS. Too young.

R80 Girl, take a pill. And stop bumping 5 year old threads. But since you have, let’s see what Meryl has to say...

She comes across as quite insufferable in private.

She got a big laugh when she said they should call Jessica Lange!

Poor dear at R86. Meryl calling Lange “divine.”

It must hurt and drive you absolutely insane.

R85 Hi Mamie!

Lange Troll at R87 we see you liking your own posts.

That's okay.

But stop bumping up 2015 threads.

R89 The delusion is high with you, isn’t it?

She comes across as quite insufferable at all times, Mamie, dear.

[quote]—G, still working on that voodoo doll

It's so nice to have time for crafts in your dotage.