Meryl Streep’s path to becoming one of the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood history began with rejection and humiliation. Before the record 21 Oscar nominations and three wins, she was told by a powerful producer that she was too ugly for a role, and a feared critic’s review made audiences turn against her performance. Born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey, she graduated from Vassar College in 1971 and earned a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. Yale, however, was not an easy launchpad.
She described the training as “like boot camp,” developed an ulcer under the pressure, and was placed on probation by a teacher who believed she was holding herself back. In 1975, Streep made her Broadway debut in “Trelawney of the Wells. ” After influential critic John Simon published a harsh review, Streep noticed the audience’s reaction change overnight. She later said that experience was when she began to hate critics.
That same year, Streep auditioned for Dino De Laurentiis’s remake of “King Kong. ” According to Streep, the producer asked his son in Italian why he had brought him “this ugly thing. ” Streep, who understood Italian, replied in the same language that she was sorry she wasn’t beautiful enough. The role went to Jessica Lange.
In 1976, Streep met actor John Cazale while performing together in a New York production of “Measure for Measure. ” Cazale was 41 and already known for roles in “The Godfather” films and “Dog Day Afternoon. ” Streep was 26. They became partners quickly, and Cazale was cast in “The Deer Hunter” despite being seriously ill with cancer.
The studio wanted Cazale replaced, but director Michael Cimino filmed his scenes first. Streep joined the production partly to stay close to him. While filming a movie about men destroyed by war, Streep was watching her partner deteriorate. Cazale died on March 12, 1978, at age 42, before “The Deer Hunter” premiered.
Streep was at his bedside. She was 29. Within months, her living situation became unstable. An ex-girlfriend obtained the lease on Cazale’s apartment.
Through her brother, Streep reconnected with sculptor Don Gummer, who offered her his apartment while he was away. In September 1978, only months after Cazale’s death, Streep and Gummer married. That same year, she was offered the role of Joanna Kramer in “Kramer vs. Kramer.
” The film brought Streep her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in what was her breakout movie role. The production was marked by conflict. During one scene, Dustin Hoffman slapped Streep across the face without warning, leaving a visible red mark. According to producer Richard Fischoff, Hoffman also deliberately invoked John Cazale’s name and cancer during filming to provoke an emotional reaction.
Streep later described such behavior as overstepping. Streep rewrote Joanna’s courtroom speech to give the character more complexity, arguing for a woman’s right to have ambitions. Hoffman reportedly told her to stop carrying the flag for feminism and just act, but director Robert Benton accepted her changes. Her next major role was in “Sophie’s Choice” in 1982, playing a Polish Auschwitz survivor.
Streep repeatedly chose characters centered on grief, survival, and guilt, transforming personal pain into performances audiences could recognize. For years, some critics questioned whether there was a human being beneath her technical precision. New Yorker critic Pauline Kael argued that Streep acted “from the neck up. ” Streep later admitted the criticism “killed” her.
Cazale had once called her a “delicious robot,” meaning she could execute performances perfectly while protecting her deepest feelings from the camera. Performances in “Out of Africa,” “A Cry in the Dark,” and “Postcards from the Edge” gradually answered those critics. Then came “The Bridges of Madison County” in 1995, where Streep played an Iowa housewife falling in love with a photographer. The role depended on hesitation and silence, and even critics who had found her cerebral had to acknowledge her emotional power.
She followed with “The Devil Wears Prada” as Miranda Priestly, then “Mamma Mia! ” as Donna Sheridan. At 59, she was demonstrating the physical spontaneity critics had claimed was missing. She played Julia Child in “Julie & Julia” and then Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” which earned her a third Academy Award for Best Actress in 2012.
That victory came with controversy. Thatcher’s former private secretary called the domestic scenes “absolutely inconceivable. ” A biographer criticized the film’s historical simplification, and conservative politicians objected to the depiction of Thatcher as cognitively impaired. In 2017, the Harvey Weinstein scandal exploded.
Streep had worked with Weinstein on films including “The Iron Lady,” which he distributed. After accusations of harassment and assault emerged, Streep called his behavior “disgraceful and inexcusable. ” She insisted she had not known about his misconduct, saying Weinstein made sure she didn’t know. Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s accusers, attacked Streep publicly over plans for actresses to wear black at the Golden Globes.
Then posters appeared around Los Angeles showing Streep beside Weinstein with the words “She Knew. ” The artist behind the campaign later acknowledged he did not actually know whether Streep knew about the misconduct and said he was retaliating over her criticism of President Donald Trump. Days before the 2017 Academy Awards, Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld told Women’s Wear Daily that Streep had abandoned a couture gown after finding another designer who would pay her. He called her a genius actress but added an insult.
Streep’s representatives denied the allegation, saying she had never been paid to wear clothing. Lagerfeld later said he had misunderstood the situation, but Streep remained furious, saying his remarks had overshadowed her record-breaking 20th Oscar nomination. At the January 2017 Golden Globes, Streep accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award with a speech that confronted the political atmosphere around Donald Trump, who was weeks from becoming president.
Without naming him, she described his imitation of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis. She argued that when powerful people humiliate others, that behavior filters into ordinary life and urged support for journalists. Trump responded on Twitter, calling her “one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood” and a “Hillary flunky. ” The exchange cemented Streep’s role as a political witness, but it also subjected her to new scrutiny.
While Streep stood before millions discussing power and public responsibility, her private life had already changed. For decades, her marriage to Don Gummer appeared stable. They raised four children: Henry, Mamie, Grace, and Louisa. At the 2012 Oscars, Streep thanked Gummer publicly, telling him everything she valued most in their life had been given to her by him.
In October 2023, a representative confirmed that Streep and Gummer had been separated for more than six years and were living apart. The statement contained no accusation or explanation. The timing placed the separation around 2017, the same year she confronted Trump publicly. Public information about the reasons for the separation remained extremely limited.
In an industry where private relationships often become commodities, their silence was unusual. The Weinstein controversy raised difficult questions about how much people within Hollywood could have known or suspected. No evidence established that Streep participated in his crimes or deliberately concealed them.
Streep continued working well into her 70s, enduring genuine loss, professional humiliation, public controversy, and profound changes in her private life without disappearing beneath them.