Meryl Streep is not just a world-famous Hollywood actress, she is a true living legend. Half a century on the screen means a lot. Streep is one of the highest paid actresses, she deservedly holds the title of “Best Actress of her generation.” Directors very much appreciate her for the fact that she is versatile in the roles she takes on. The actress is capable of playing anyone. Knowing all this today, it’s hard to believe that Meryl’s work wasn’t always so appreciated. She was once even ridiculed at an audition for her appearance, calling her “ugly.”
Meryl Streep was born and raised in New Jersey. Even in her high school years, she played in theater productions, but she was not particularly interested in it. After she went to college, the theater began to occupy all her thoughts. In 1975, she joined the New York theater and played several roles there. Two years later in her life happened an event that determined the future fate. Meryl saw the movie “Taxi Driver” with Robert De Niro in the title role. This inspired her to start acting in movies. The first audition brought the first role in the movie. Not the main, but in the company of Jane Fonda. Almost immediately De Niro, who saw Streep in one of the theater productions, invited her to star in one of his films.
After that, Streep’s career took a sharp turn for the worse. In the 1980s, she starred in many films as the title character, including Sophie’s Choice, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and Silent Night. Since then, she has starred in many popular films of all genres, including The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia, Don’t Look Up and The Post.
During her career, she earned an impressive number of awards, which only strengthened her at the top of the stellar Olympus. The actress was nominated for the most prestigious film award Oscar record number of times – 21. She has been nominated for the Golden Globe Awards more than three dozen times, winning eight of them. She has also been nominated for a Tony Award and six Grammy Awards, just to name a few of her many honors that one can get tired of listing.
As megapopular as Streep is now, for her career she had to endure a lot of rejections and even humiliation. The most offensive of them was an episode at the very beginning of her career in the movie. Meryl said that she went to audition for the movie “King Kong”. Despite her youth and lack of experience in filmmaking, she was invited by Federico De Laurentiis to audition. He saw her in the theater and was impressed by the actress’ talent.
Federico anticipated his triumph – after all, he had found such a diamond! However, he soon had to endure a huge disappointment. Dino De Laurentiis did not appreciate Meryl. When he looked at her, he turned to his son and said, “Why did you bring this ugly girl here?” He spoke in Italian, thinking the actress didn’t understand him. But Streep did.
In response to this rudeness, she nonchalantly replied in Italian: “I’m sorry I’m not pretty enough to play in ‘King Kong’.” After that, she left the audition. Left only to become not just one of the most famous actresses in the history of cinema, but a true legend of Hollywood.
