Meryl Streep names the directors she admires the most: “A hallowed space to work”
Directors have been queuing up to work with Meryl Streep for decades, and while she’s collaborated with countless all-time greats throughout her career, she holds some in higher esteem than others.
That list includes Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Spike Jonze, Robert Zemeckis, Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Steven Soderbergh, and many more, none of whom were mentioned among the names the three-time Academy Award winner admired the most.
That’s not to say she didn’t enjoy working with those aforementioned auteurs, and she gave Oscar-nominated performances for many more, but it clearly takes a special kind of director to be remembered by Streep as an artist and creative mind who leaves a lasting impact.
The most fun director to work with was Mike Nichols,” Streep told the Golden Globes. “Because he was very funny all the time, his wit was so alive off camera that it kept things popping on the set of Silkwood.” Their bond was instant, which explains why they reunited in three consecutive decades for Heartburn, Postcards from the Edge, and the miniseries Angels in America.
Her Sophie’s Choice director, Alan J Pakula, may have had a “very different style” from Nichols, but he left an equally important impression. “He created a sacrosanct atmosphere on set,” she recalled. “A hallowed space in which to work, where actors felt completely protected and cushioned from any outside influence.”
Meanwhile, her Kramer vs Kramer and Still of the Night director, Robert Benton, was “more like a friend and a collaborator” than a distant auteur who ruled with an iron fist. That sense of working closely together to figure out a character was something Streep always appreciated, especially when she’s had her disagreements with certain colleagues on the odd occasion.
1985’s drama Plenty and 1988’s A Cry in the Dark may not be among Steep’s best-known films, although she did earn her customary Oscar nod for the latter, but Fred Schepisi was another director she developed a great admiration for: “He lets me talk and occasionally listens to what I say, which is nice, so it’s very enjoyable to work with him, except that the hours he keeps are insane.”
Streep was allowed to live vicariously through Ironweed‘s Hector Babenco, who let off more steam on set than she ever needed to on-camera. “He would blow his top or weep or get hysterical, so I didn’t need to feel any of those things,” she said of the intense shoot. “I could let all the problems go to him. At the same time, he was always very clear about what he wanted the picture to look like.”
The acting icon has always appreciated “a director who’s very strong, because I can relax in the security of that vision.” Nichols, Pakula, Benton, Schepisi, and Babenco provided all of that and more, which is why they stuck in her memory as the directors she admired and enjoyed working with the most.
