One Wicked Devil of a Woman

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is a three-time Academy Award winner, she has repeatedly been called the "best actress of her generation". Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville in 1971, and went on to receive a 1976 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for A Memory of Two Mondays/27 Wagons Full of Cotton. She made her screen debut in the 1977 television film The Deadliest Season, and made her film debut later that same year in Julia. In 1978, she won an Emmy Award for her role in the miniseries Holocaust, and received her first Academy Award nomination for The Deer Hunter. Nominated for 19 Academy Awards in total, Streep has more nominations than any other actor or actress in history, winning Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and Best Actress for Sophie's Choice (1982) and for The Iron Lady (2011).

But here are some interesting facts that you might not know about Meryl:
1. She is an international role model for women and girls everywhere and helps numerous charities regularly. 
2. She is the National Spokesperson for the National Woman's History Museum to whom she has donated significant amounts of money and hosted numerous events (the museum is being built in DC, near the National Mall).
3. She worked her way through Yale School of Drama by waitressing and typing.
4. She had such a terrible time in filming the 1977 Jane Fonda movie, Jane, that she almost quit film acting completely!
5. When asked in a 2015 interview by Time Out magazine if she was a feminist, answered, "I am a humanist, I am for nice easy balance."
6. She left her first Oscar on the back of a toilet. I have that problem all the time!
7. In high school she was on the cheer leading squad, she was the lead in every musical, she was involved in the French club and the student council, according to writer Michael Schulman in his Meryl Streep bio, Her Again. 
8. When she was at Yale, she got every lead. Other students started to resent her for it, so she went to the Dean to ask if she could get out of doing some of the plays. He said no - she was too good. 
9. She learned to play violin for 'Music of the Heart.' She practiced the violin 6 hours a day for 8 weeks leading up to her portrayal of inner-city music teacher Roberta Guaspari.
10. Streep lived with actor John Cazale for three years until his death from lung cancer in March 1978. She never got over it. 

All hail the Wickedly Devilish Queen of Screen and Stage!

​Next week for Wicked Women Wednesdays - nominate a female political leader for us to celebrate! They can be a US or international leader. You can nominate via email at rachel (at) rachelmannino.com, Facebook or Twitter.  

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