Meryl Streep’s savage response to her critics: “Life-hating, life-sucking, desiccated old farts”
Becoming a living legend comes with its own unique set of perks and privileges, and for Meryl Streep, that includes being able to do whatever the hell she wants.
Having spent decades dedicating herself to exacting, exhausting, and completely committed performances that pushed her to the physical and psychological brink, the star was well within her rights to take it a little easier and opt for some lighter fare, and it’s not as if it would dent her reputation.
Streep has been open about addressing the challenges of ageing in Hollywood, noting several points after turning 40 when she had to fight harder than ever to land roles that studios, filmmakers, and producers were less interested in casting her in.
It sounds ridiculous to hear one of the all-time greats lament the lack of opportunities coming their way, but it speaks volumes to the nature of the business. She might be the most-nominated performer in the history of the Academy Awards, but the knives were out and starting to grow sharper the longer her drought between wins went on.
Streep notched her second Oscar in 1983 but wouldn’t claim a third until 2012, and during that ;atter period in the early 2000s she lent her name to some of the worst-received entries in her filmography, including Lions for Lambs, Evening, Dark Matter, Rendition, and Prime. It was definitely a slump, but not something she couldn’t recover from.
The majority of those aforementioned titles were box office bombs, but one of them certainly was not. Mamma Mia! may not have been a critical darling, but it became a cultural phenomenon that soared past $600 million in ticket sales and landed her on the Golden Globes shortlist for ‘Best Actress – Musical or Comedy’.
However, some of the snootier critics believed that a frothy musical caper was beneath a talent of her calibre, indicating that her glory days were over. Fortunately, Streep was there to put them in their place, as she explained to the Los Angeles Times: “I knew it would make lots of people happy, and you know the reviews came out, and when the bad reviews came out, the blogosphere just exploded with women empowered to say, ‘These people are crazy! What’s the matter with you? Life-hating, life-sucking, desiccated old farts.”
The “desiccated old farts” may have lamented Streep segueing from hard-hitting dramatic fare to escapist entertainment designed to reach the widest possible audience, but she didn’t give a shit. Not every movie needs to be a straight-laced and solemn character study, and it’s clear that she was having a ball hamming it up in Mamma Mia!
Of course, she eventually landed that elusive Oscar a couple of years later when she went full Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, which gave her the last laugh over the naysayers.
