Still not convinced that Meryl Streep will finally win her 3rd Oscar for The Iron Lady. So many people are fanning themselves over the brilliance of her performance as Margaret Thatcher and I’m always happy to hop on a Meryl bandwagon, totally, but ... I just don’t feel it from her this time around. Have you seen the second trailer? I’ve attached it below. There’s something about the way she bugs out her eyes that is so obvious, in comparison to Michelle Williams’s subtler Marilyn, I just don’t know that Meryl’s is The Best of this season.
But we all know, Oscars are not necessarily about The Best. Oscars are more often about the Most Popular and the Clever Campaign. And that’s another reason I was hesitant to go along with a prediction for Meryl’s Best Actress Win. Because while the others are totally lobbying for it, that kind of blatant hustle just isn’t Meryl’s style. Which is one of the reasons we love her so much, right? It’s not that she wouldn’t want it. Just not so bad that she’d reach out and ask for it.
I wonder then if this Vogue cover isn’t as far as she’ll go to make a play for the award. Even still, Meryl has done it in a way that she can stomach. By highlighting the causes that mean the most to her outside of Hollywood - the Community-Supported Agriculture Association and the National Women’s History Museum for which she is the National Spokesperson.
When she does talk about acting, she does it in a way that doesn’t speak to entitlement or gift - once again, Meryl Streep brings it back to WORK. Hard WORK. Just as she did that night in Toronto at the ROM. It’s the night I first started writing about Meryl Streep and “capable”. When she said that the most important thing her mother ever told her was to BE CAPABLE.
Not special.
Ugh, definitely not special. But Capable.
People who are Capable, they work hard.
This is where she “found” Margaret Thatcher. In the common ground of Working Hard:
“From the moment the day started until it was three, four in the morning, (Thatcher) just never, ever stopped, and she worked so hard and relentlessly to be able to be in that position where what she said was the course the nation took. It was really extraordinary, her tirelessness, sheer stamina. When I say that, I really mean it, because I work hard, I know what working hard is and I know what staying up late is, and you can do it for a certain time. But to do it for eleven years? And out of power, to keep on with it, into the sunset? Superhuman.”
You know what’s great about Working Hard? It’s that you don’t have to be born with anything extra to Work Hard. So it surprises me in these times that Working Hard doesn’t get as much love as, say, “Follow Your Dream”.
Working Hard will certainly take you farther.
Meryl Streep works very hard. Just ... maybe not at Oscar campaigning.
Click here to read the wonderful profile of Meryl Streep in Vogue.
PS. I hate the photo they put on the cover. Michael K at Dlisted is right: it looks like she pissed herself. The black shirtdress she’s wearing as she’s walking through that garden is MUCH better, non?
