Living Monument: Why Claims to Meryl Streep - Mistake
A week of hatred for Meryl Streep - this is what we would call this week. At first, Rose McGowan blamed the Strip for knowing about Harvey Weinstein’s actions while continuing to work with him. Streep said that Weinstein probably needed more than he did, so the producer behaved decently with her. McGowan quickly took the words back, but failed to turn the stuffing back — after her accusations, anonymous posters with a photo of the Strip and an eloquent inscription “She knew” were hung around Los Angeles.
The reason for the conflict was the announcement of the Strip that it will appear at the ceremony “Big Globe” in black: the actress called on her colleagues to express protest against the harassment in Hollywood. McGowan and Los Angeles artists found this gesture hypocritical: women, in their opinion, were going to accept "fake rewards", which does not help the changes in the industry. We understand why Streep does not deserve such harsh accusations at all, not to mention insulting harassment.
Academic actress
The entire career of the Strip is a very consistent movement towards success without fatal accidents and unique chances. She was born in a rather prosperous family, she has been preparing for the stage since she was a teenager, then she received a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and a master’s degree from Yale — all in the specialty Drama. Successfully played in the theater, and the first prominent role in the movie was relatively late, at twenty-nine years old - in the military drama "The Deer Hunter". Then there were the Holocaust series, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and finally Kramer vs. Kramer, after which it became clear that Streep was an adult, independent actress and was not afraid to object deeply to the male industry.
The plot of Kramer vs. Kramer was based on the story of Avery Corman, who, according to legend, was angry with feminists and decided to write a short story about a “good guy” and an egocentric woman. Starting the shooting, Streep said that the main character is spelled out very poorly, her motivation is not clear and in general the role requires a serious adjustment. Then, in the late 70s, it was very bold. However, Meryl Streep continued to achieve that with her demands to rewrite the cues and attempts to change the "masculine" angle of the role to "feminine", we had to put up with such industry stars as director Robert Benton and actor Dustin Hoffman. "Why don't you lower the feminist flag and just play in this scene?" - Hoffman asked her, whom Streep openly dismayed, and he was saucy in return. On the eve of the actor John Casale, who lived with the actress, died of cancer. The strip was on its own, and "Kramer vs. Kramer" went down in history as almost its main film - for it, she received the first of her three Oscars.
The second Oscar Strip was awarded for Sophie's Choice, where she played a Polish migrant who moved to the United States and lost her family in the Nazi camp. The reputation of the actress was fixed for Streep, who is not afraid of difficult topics, but also masterfully conveys accents: Yale graduate was attentive to the origin of her characters, which later allowed her, an American, to play Margaret Thatcher (during her lifetime).
Crisis of forty
The Iron Lady, which brought the third Oscar to the Strip, happened in 2011, and in the 1990s, the actress was faced with a problem: she became too old in the eyes of Hollywood. By the time the actress married the sculptor Don Gammera (with whom he had been married for more than thirty years), had four children, basically lived in quiet Connecticut, and not in noisy Los Angeles. Hollywood continued to offer the actress a job, but now only the roles of witches. Favorite by many ironic horror "Death to her face" Streep perceived as a sign of hopelessness. But film critics still consider this role a big mistake, although the picture has become a hit.
In the 90s, the actress pulled the picture "Bridges of Madison County" out of the crisis - the Strip finally mastered the role of a mature woman. Later, she admitted that she always felt forty years old - balanced and whole. In addition, the Strip has never been a typical "Hollywood beauty" - at first she was told about it right in the face - but this did not prevent her from making a stellar career. Streep blames his then-crisis on the fact that Hollywood has always been a male story. "Only 17% of decisions in the industry are made by women, but the situation is changing. I am glad that at my age I participate in wonderful projects that could not exist ten years ago, and twenty years ago I could only play witches and ghouls", she said in an Independent interview eight years ago.
Women's history
At the time, Streep seriously drew attention to the women's agenda. She was told at the university about the advantages of equality: Vassar College is ironically called the center of leftist propaganda. Since the late 1990s, the actress has been sponsoring and strongly supporting the project of the National Museum of Women's History in Washington - activists have unsuccessfully sought permission to build it. Streep herself admits that she learned about the women's view of history quite late, although, in an amicable way, it should be taught in this way at school — for example, it would be good to study the women's diaries of historical figures.
In 2015, the actress sent letters to all US congressmen asking them to support the amendment to the constitution about giving women equal rights with men, and in the same year she starred in the film “Suffragiste” with a telling title. "Men should start to perceive their domination as something unhealthy, they should feel it. Managers should think if women are not half the participants in an important discussion," she said in an interview after the premiere. Streep was never afraid to speak openly about her political position: at the Golden Globe ceremony in January 2017, she criticized Trump for motivating a journalist with a disability. In response, the president called her "an overvalued actress from the camp of the liberals."
However, Streep does not consider herself a feminist - in an interview with Time Out after the release of Suffragist, the actress called herself a "humanist" and a supporter of "good and easy balance." After that, the whole Western press giggled - the main woman of Hollywood, who became a living symbol of professionalism and consistently upholding her position, is afraid of the word “f”. However, no one began to condemn her seriously.
Not guilty
Given all this, it is strange to observe the current accusations against Meryl Streep - even if it does not have the exaltation of McGowan and the glibness of Jezebel columnists. Streep is a living monument of the film market (for which many people criticize it), a man of quite reserved temperament, she tried not to get involved in scandals and is unlikely to do it now.
Did Streep know of Weinstein's crimes? The question is open. There is no direct evidence of this, but McGowan refused to speak. We do not condemn the silence of the victims - they could be afraid of Weinstein’s agents, the collapse of their careers, the “black list of actresses” and even publicity. And it is logical (especially in the absence of weighty evidence that could indicate complicity) to extend this rule to the co-workers of the victims and rapists. The implicit claim to the Strip is supposedly the fact that it is quite an influential figure in Hollywood, which means that it must look to the sides in a responsible way - after all, only big stars can protect everyone else. However, Meryl Streep influenced the proceedings with Weinstein not only by a sharp public reaction of condemnation, but also by her own example - she approached equality of rights, what is called, a deed. And this, as we know, is no less important for the struggle than loud tweets.
Photo:Getty Images (1), Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox
