We couldn’t have a better spokesperson. Here’s some thoughts from an Australian piece in The Age when she was promoting Doubt.
Notwithstanding her success, she has been a frequent critic of the way in which mainstream cinema tends to offer few challenging roles for women of a certain age. Addressing the Screen Actors Guild in 1990, she described the male Hollywood establishment as full of “stupid, greedy people”, and half joked that if the trend continued women would be eliminated altogether from movies by 2010. Executives, she went on, didn’t like to cast women who “remind them of their first wives”.
“Well, I still think that’s absolutely true,” she tells me. “I’m always shocked when I get another job.”
Shocked? How can that be so? “Because it’s a miracle, in the world in which I grew up. When I was a young actress, Bette Davis put an ad in the trade newspaper saying, ‘Actress, late 40s, eager to work’ — because there was no work.”
But that was then. Surely times have changed. “Sort of … but if I look at the landscape of roles available, times have changed mostly for me. I mean, I get a lot of the work; it’s not spread around very well. It’s the economics; and the blighted imagination of the people who finance films.”
She know the list is very short and at times there is only one name on it — hers.
Woman of an uncertain age (The Age)
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she is a goddess…
That’s right!!! I’ve been watching YouTube interviews with Meryl, about her roles in “Doubt” and other films, and find her sharp analysis and her openness about her processes absolutely amazing. Learn so much from each interview.
I think Meryl is a very brave woman to speak out about how women are treated by the entertainment industry. It certainly could have and may have in the past jeopardized her ability to be offered roles in films and also win awards for her tremendous performances in the movies. I admire how articulate and well informed she is whenever she speaks in interviews or to the press. This is an intelligent lady that has her priorities right and stands up for her beliefs. Bravo Meryl and keep it up. If all women did this, the revolution would change the good old boy stronghold.
I think Meryl Streep is one of the most incredible legendary living actress of all time . Considering watching on what she can do is singing and dancing from Mamma Mia at her age come on now . When I saw Meryl Streep doing her thing with these other actresses in this movie, I thought there’s no way she can proved anybody who has a singing voice quite like this and I think it’s so amazing that she can pulled it off without remembering these lyrics . If there’s going to be another musical or even yet movie that has dancing like Hip-Hop version, I think both Ellen Degeneres and Meryl Streep would be the perfect team to protrayed indeed .
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