Meryl Streep names one of her “favourite movies in the world”
As was to be expected by the first-time pairing of two acting heavyweights, Meryl Streep and Al Pacino were each on inimitable award-winning form when they co-starred in the 2003 miniseries Angels in America.
Mike Nichols’ series saw both actors head up a star-studded cast that also numbered Patrick Wilson, Mary-Louise Parker, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and many more esteemed talents, but it was the Academy Award-winning icons who dominated the conversation.
Pacino would win the Golden Globe for ‘Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film’ and the Primetime Emmy for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie’, with Streep emerging victorious in the corresponding category for female performers. It was precisely what they deserved and reflective of their respective standings as two of the greats.
With both rising to prominence during the 1970s, they were keenly aware of each other’s work long before becoming friends – never mind colleagues – but there’s one Pacino movie that Streep holds in the highest regard after she named Dog Day Afternoon as “one my favourite movies in the world” during a conversation with Entertainment Weekly.
Sidney Lumet’s classic crime drama saw Pacino give an incendiary and Oscar-nominated performance as Sonny Wortzik, as he gets caught up in a hostage scenario of his own making. Widely regarded as one of the best films of not just the decade but all time, Streep also has a tragic personal connection to the project.
John Cazale took second billing behind Pacino in the ensemble, in what marked the penultimate credit of his career, with his final role in The Deer Hunter being released after his death at the age of 42 in March 1978. The year after Dog Day Afternoon landed in cinemas, Streep and Cazale would strike up a relationship after meeting as the leads of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and they would live together in New York City until his passing.
Pacino told The New York Post that he’d “learned more about acting from John than anybody,” even offering that “all I wanted to do was work with John for the rest of my life.” Describing Cazale as his “acting partner”, the star never forgot how Streep was by his side until the end.
Reflecting on her off-screen legacy as Cazale’s constant presence, Pacino said, “As great as she is in all her work, that’s what I think of when I think of her.” One of his closest friends was Streep’s romantic partner, and the final feature they co-starred in together was still held up decades later as one of her favourite movies, which is the sort of coincidence Hollywood regularly throws up regardless of how deeply this particular example is rooted in a defining moment that robbed them both of somebody they cared about.
