Why did Meryl Streep try to turn down an Emmy?
Actor Meryl Streep is widely considered one of the greatest cinema stars of her generation. Over the years, she’s delivered nuanced performances in a great range of film genres with a versatility that is often unmatched by her fellow performers, making audiences laugh, cry and ponder in equal measure.
Over six decades, Streep has been adorned with several awards and accolades. In fact, she holds a record for receiving 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and 32 Golden Globe nominations, winning eight. The Oscar wins comprise ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Kramer vs. Kramer and ‘Best Actress’ for both Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady.
While Golden Globes and Academy Awards were welcomely accepted by Streep, she once expressed an issue with the Emmys and famously rejected an award from the organisation. Despite all the award wins and nominations, there came a period in Streep’s career where she began to doubt the worth of prizes themselves.
In 1978, a four-part miniseries aired called Holocaust, in which Streep starred. It told of two German families in Berlin before and during World War Two, and for her effort in the series, Streep was given the nod to receive an Emmy. However, the actor attempted to turn it down.
After being told she would win the ‘Outstanding Leading Actress in a Limited Series’ Emmy award, Streep fired back at those who’d pointed out her brilliance. She said, “I don’t think performances should be taken out of context and put up against each other for awards.”
Still, Streep found it difficult to actually reject the Emmy because she, still in the early part of her career, simply needed the money. There was another issue that arose out of Holocaust, too, and it comes from how the public began to perceive her new fame off the back of it.
The actor experienced a number of distressing situations off the back of the miniseries, including one where she was riding her bike through Manhattan. A group of men in the back of a car noticed Streep and shouted out the window, “Hey, Holocaust! Hey, Holocaust!”
Streep was less than impressed by the men’s action, especially seeing as the subject matter of the series was evidently sensitive. “It’s absurd,” Streep said of the incident. “That that episode in history can be reduced to people screaming out of car windows at an actress.”
So the actor tried to turn down the Emmy to show that the creative efforts of actors and directors and the like ought not to be held up against each other in competition but rather judged on their own individual merit. Streep has gone on to win other Emmy awards since Holocaust, but she’ll always remember the time she tried to reject one.
