Most actors would be thrilled to win just one Academy Award, but the inimitable Meryl Streep is desperate for a third.
The 62-year-old actress is nominated for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
After a record 17 Oscar nominations, 25 Golden Globe nominations, and a slew of BAFTAs, Screen Actors Guild awards and People’s Choice awards, Meryl tells the February issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly she still isn’t satisfied.
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“I am very greedy [for more],” she says.
Meryl loved playing Thatcher, but was surprised by the former British leader’s stamina.
Margaret famously only slept for four or five hours a night and always found time to cook dinner for her husband, even while running an empire.
“I’m in awe of her,” Meryl says. “How, for eleven and a half years, to exist on that amount of sleep and make that many decisions?
“I’m not that way. I need to go away, ‘Leave me alone, I need to go to sleep’, and have a big refurbishment.
“I need to listen to music. I need to read some poetry. I need to be by myself much more.”
There is a deeply poignant moment in the film where Thatcher as an old woman is looking at a DVD of her twins, Mark and Carol, playing as young children on the beach.
The former prime minister wonders aloud if it was all worth it, if she might not have spent more time with her children. Her husband replies, “You can rewind it, but you can’t change it.” It was a scene Meryl could relate to.
“Yes, everything is a decision. Everything is a choice. It comes down to that, the choices. You don’t even know if the choices you made were the right ones and the jury is out until your children have children. So it’s an ongoing anxiety.
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“But no, to me the reason to make the film was to look at the life of a big public person and then to morph it at some point into a story about you and me and all of us.
“How do we take leave of things? How do we reconcile ourselves to the cost of the choices we made in our life?”
Read David Leser’s exclusive interview with Meryl Streep in the February issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What is your favourite Meryl Streep film?
Video: Meryl Streep on 60 Minutes
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