At the end of the 70s, before becoming the great actress we know today, Meryl Streep took her very first steps in the cinema in the drama “Julia” by Fred Zinnemann.
Let us recall his unforgettable meeting with Robert Redford in the savannah of Out of Africa, his heartbreaking face-to-face with Clint Eastwood in On the Road to Madison, his delicious interpretation of the merciless Miranda Priestley in The Devil Comes dressed in Prada or her delightful performance in Mamma Mia, a simple glance at Meryl Streep’s illustrious career is enough to understand that we are dealing with one of the greatest actresses in cinema.
Crowned with three Oscars (for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady), her spectacular career in Hollywood began 47 years ago, when she was around 27. It is indeed in 1977, in the drama Julia by Fred Zinneman, that Meryl Streep began her acting career.
Even if she did not play the main role of the feature film – which recounted the disappearance of an anti-fascist resistance fighter in the 1930s – the budding actress was still among the most important names in the casting, which gave her the opportunity to opportunity to share a sequence with one of the two stars of the film: the famous Jane Fonda.
20th century Fox
A first role opposite Jane Fonda
Without knowing it, this great lady of cinema saw the birth before her eyes of one of her most prestigious heirs in the person of Meryl Streep. The latter, however, later declared that she did not have very happy memories of this first shoot with Fred Zinneman, quite the contrary:
“I had a horrible wig, and they took the words from the scene I did with Jane and put them in a different scene”she declared between the pages of the work Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actorby Karina Longworth.
20th century Fox
“I hated this industry.”
“I told myself that I had made a terrible mistake, and that I would not make any more films. I hated this industry.”
Fortunately, Meryl Streep changed her mind, and the following year, she resplendent with her unforgettable performance in Journey to the End of Hell by Michael Cimino, opposite Robert de Niro (whom she particularly admired) and Christopher Walken. Another year later, she won the first of her three Oscars thanks to the drama Kramer vs. Kramer with Dustin Hoffman.
Fun fact: Julia by Fred Zinneman also marks the first steps in the cinema of a French actor, and not just any French actor, since it is Lambert Wilson.
What is your favorite Meryl Streep role?
(Re)discover the trailer for “Kramer versus Kramer”…