{"id":4788,"date":"2024-06-23T10:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T17:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/?p=4788"},"modified":"2024-07-01T08:42:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T15:42:58","slug":"meryl-streep-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/23\/meryl-streep-at-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Meryl Streep at 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Meryl Streep (c) Elisa Leonelli 1983<\/p><\/div>\n

Meryl Streep<\/a> turned 75 on June 22, and that milestone made me reflect about the many times I interviewed the greatest actress of my generation and the numerous articles I wrote about her work, in my long career as a film journalist, for the international magazines I corresponded for from Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Meryl Streep \u00a9 Elisa Leonelli 1983<\/p><\/div>\n

Having admired her acting in The Deer Hunter<\/em> <\/a>(1978) by Michael Cimino, Kramer vs. Kramer<\/em><\/a> (1979) by Robert Benton with Dustin Hoffman, The French Lieutenant Woman<\/em> <\/a>(1981) by Karel Reisz with Jeremy Irons, and Sophie\u2019s Choice<\/em><\/a> (1982) by Alan Pakula with Kevin Kline, it was exciting to meet this amazing actress in person for the first time and photograph her in 1983, after interviews about Silkwood<\/em><\/a>. She said of director Mike Nichols that he was very funny all the time, and his wit was so alive off camera that it kept things popping on the set.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Meryl Streep (c) Elisa Leonelli 1988<\/p><\/div>\n

I photographed Streep again in 1988 after interviews about Cry in the Dark<\/em><\/a> with director Fred Schepisi and costar Sam Neill.\u00a0 In 1989 the Italian film monthly CIAK put Streep on the cover with my article<\/a> about Cry in the Dark<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Meryl Streep (c) Elisa Leonelli 1988<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1990 CIAK published my article<\/a> about Postcards from the Edge<\/a>,<\/em> where I quoted director Mike Nichols, screenwriter Carrie Fisher, Streep and costar Shirley MacLaine. I remember well those press interviews in Las Vegas at Caesar\u2019s Palace.<\/p>\n

Marie Claire Italy published my interview profile of Meryl Streep in 1989, and again in 1994 about The River Wild<\/em><\/a> by Curtis Hanson. In 2022 I wrote about that unforgettable summer adventure<\/a>, when journalists were invited to experience the thrill of river rafting in Montana.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Elisa Leonelli, Meryl Streep (c) HFPA 1988<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1997 the Italian weekly Gioia published my interview<\/a> with Streep about Marvin\u2019s Room<\/em><\/a>, where a teenage Leonardo DiCaprio played her son.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Elisa Leonelli, Meryl Streep (c) HFPA 1998<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2001 the Italian magazine Donna Moderna printed my interview\/profile of Streep to coincide with the release of Music of the Heart<\/em><\/a>, directed by Wes Craven, about music teacher Roberta Guaspari.<\/p>\n

In 2003 the Spanish magazine Cineman\u00eda published my career interview with Streep<\/a> on the occasion of the release of The Hours<\/a>,<\/em> directed Stephen Daldry, costarring Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Elisa Leonelli, Meryl Streep (c) HFPA 2002<\/p><\/div>\n

I wrote interviews with Streep for the Italian film monthly Best Movie, having served their Los Angeles correspondent since 2005. In 2007 about Lions for Lambs<\/em><\/a> directed by Robert Redford and Rendition<\/em><\/a>, where I said in the preface: \u201cShe has been involved in environmental causes and activism, and hopes that young people will bring needed change the world.\u00a0 She recognizes that this task is everyone\u2019s responsibility, not just the politicians.\u201d In 2018 I wrote about her role as Katharine Graham, owner of the Washington Post, in The Post<\/em><\/a> directed by Steven Spielberg.<\/p>\n

In 2020, as part of my weekly series of archival quotes from interviews by the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press, I wrote what Streep said<\/a> about some of the directors she worked with: Mike Nichols, Fred Schepisi, Robert Benton and Hector Babenco, who directed her in Ironweed<\/em><\/a> (1987) with Jack Nicholson.<\/p>\n

Among her other co-stars, I\u2019d like to mention Robert Redford in Out of Africa<\/em><\/a> (1985) directed by Sydney Pollack<\/a>, Clint Eastwood who also directed her in The Bridges of Madison County<\/em><\/a> (1995). She also starred in movies like The Devil Wears Prada<\/em><\/a> (2006) and Julie & Julia<\/em><\/a> (2009), In fact all of her performance are excellent and too numerous to list them all.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s television\u2026<\/p>\n

In April 2023 I mentioned Meryl Streep\u2019s work in my piece<\/a> about the TV series Extrapolations<\/em><\/a> created by Scott Z. Burns, exploring the effects of the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Meryl Streep (c) HFPA 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

Meryl Streep holds a record 33 Golden Globe nominations and 9 wins, and in 2017 was honored with the Cecil B. deMille award.<\/p>\n

Happy Birthday Meryl, keep up the good work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Meryl Streep turned 75 on June 22, and that milestone made me reflect about the many times I interviewed the greatest actress of my generation and the numerous articles I wrote about her work, in my long career as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies-tv"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4855,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions\/4855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village.elisaleonelli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}