the Kennedy Centre Honours held at the White House. “Meryl Streep, anybody who saw The French Lieutenant's Woman had a crush on her,” beamed Obama, and she returned a smile. Moving away from Washington, it’s at No. 10 Downing Street and the House of Commons in London where the drama takes place in The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who made Mamma Mia! with Streep.
husband who did love her. It’s interesting to look deeply into a life and find out where the human being is in there.” To the consternation of many, a large part of The Iron Lady is concerned with the years after Thatcher has lost power and later in life she is losing her notoriously sharp memory as dementia sets in. She hallucinates and holds conversations with her late husband Dennis, a device that at least allows a fresh approach to the structure of a biographical film.
Although Streep doesn’t necessarily agree with Thatcher’s politics and has never met her, she admires her steadfast nature in “What are the costs, to a woman, climbing the ladder. “She was the grocer’s of being in this position of power?” daughter, famously,” says Streep of Thatcher’s humble origins. “Just to get into Oxford (university) at that point from there was really unusual. And to take a chemistry During this time of Thatcher’s life, Streep degree is very unusual. It still is.” thought of her as Shakespeare’s tragic King Lear. She also drew on personal Another attraction to the role, which covers experiences from within her own family. several decades, was playing a woman of “My father had dementia, and I felt that I conviction in the face of adversity. “She was could tell parts of the story that I knew,” she and remains in many quarters very hated reveals. I do feel a responsibility to that to for what she did and her policies in get that as accurately from my own England, and she’s also revered in other experiences as I can.” quarters for who she was and how she’s stood up for what she believed,” adds Streep is keen to point out how “rare” roles Streep. like The Iron Lady and Mamma Mia! are. “Just the opportunity to be these different “So it was the discrepancy that attracted women, is a privilege to imagine them and me: who is this person who was willing to, to open them up for view. We don’t see and could withstand, just the ability to enough older women in the movies! withstand that level of venom? What kind of woman can stand up as a human being “I’m interested in old people. I’m interested through years and years and years, in the stories that are layered and the layers decades of hatred, and still sort of behind that old ladies’ face, and what are maintained her convictions? I felt that was the costs, to a woman, of being in this fascinating, and she’s an old lady now and position of power? What is the cost of that from everything that I could read, she had kind of life, lived so ambitiously? Are there a marriage that sustained her and a any regrets in it? Are there memories of
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