“I was young and new at this”: Meryl Streep Regretted 1981 Film Due To Her Subpar Acting Despite Earning an Oscar Nomination
Meryl Streep, who is frequently called the greatest actress of her generation, is renowned for her ability to seamlessly switch accents for her characters and for taking on a variety of roles. The renowned actress’s career graph has demonstrated her status as the best of all time, or the GOAT.
Karel Reisz’s 1981 British romantic drama film The French Lieutenant’s Woman featured Streep and was based on John Fowles’ 1969 novel of the same name. Although the actress received an Academy Award nomination for her roles as Miss Sarah Woodruff and Anna in the film, she does not feel the same way about it as the public does. Let’s examine.
Meryl Streep reveals she wasn’t happy with The French Lieutenant’s Woman
During her appearance on The Graham Norton Show , actress Meryl Streep confessed that despite the movie being venerated, she wasn’t really happy with her 1981 movie The French Lieutenant’s Woman, in which she plays the character of Miss Sarah Woodruff and Anna. The movie’s screenplay is by Harold Pinter. She said,
“I’m giving myself an out, but part of it was, the structure of it was sort of artificial because I was the actress playing the French Lieutenant’s Woman. At the same time, I was an American actress playing a British woman.”
She continued,
“I was young and new at this. I wasn’t as pleased as I didn’t feel I was living it. You always want to do something better.”
The movie, however, did receive mixed reviews from critics and the audience, but the actress’ performance was praised, which is how she earned her Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Meryl Streep is open to returning to Mamma Mia
The legendary actress appeared as Donna Sheridan-Carmichael in the Mamma Mia movie series alongside Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, etc., and was highly admired for the character portrayal. Recently, talks about having the third part of the movie have been circling the industry and the actress was asked if she would like to return to being Donna Sheridan, to which she said to Vogue in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike;
“I’m up for anything. I’ll have to schedule a knee-scoping before we film, but if there’s an idea that excites me, I’m totally there.”
However, Streep’s character was killed in the second part of the movie after battling cancer, but the actress shared ways she could come back to the franchise as Donna. She said,
“I told [producer] Judy [Craymer] if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, I’m into that. Or it could be like in one of those soap operas where Donna comes back and reveals it was really her twin sister that died.”
Amanda Seyfried, who played Streep’s daughter in the movie, also expressed her willingness to return to the franchise. She said,
“Nobody is saying no, but nobody is saying yes either. The powers that be probably can’t afford us to be honest. I hate to say it, because would I do Mamma Mia 3 for free—of course I would—but that’s not the business we’re in. What’s fair is fair, and I feel like a third film is gonna come down to something stupid like whether or not Universal wants to pay the money.”
Streep described their time filming the movie as just a deliriously happy shoot, adding that she doesn’t remember not having the time of her life.
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