The moment Meryl Streep started hating the critics: “They were told how to feel”
The actor profession has been utterly dominated by the true legend, Meryl Streep. Holding a record 21 Academy Award nominations, Streep has transcended the acting game, becoming one of the profession’s most beloved and acclaimed stars through her mesmerising performances.
The list of quality movies with Streep’s name on them is seemingly endless, but just for a taster, consider the brilliance of the likes of The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, The Devil Wears Prada and The Bridges of Madison Country, which also prove her widespread versatility as an actor.
However, even the greatest actors can occasionally be on the receiving end of some of the most scathing criticism, and even someone with the acclaim of Streep had learned of this reality in the mid-1970s when she was making her first steps onto Broadway.
A critic can sometimes help an actor understand their performance better, but when a bad review comes in, it can serve as a demoralising blow to their confidence. When Streep performed in a Broadway production of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s Trelawny of The Wells, she discovered the impact a critic could also have on an audience.
“It was a wonderful cast with Mandy Patinkin and John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt,” Streep had once told WENN (via Vanity Fair) of the production before explaining the green nature of the overall case: “All of us pretty much [were in our] first plays.”
According to Streep, the previews for the show were brilliant, with “audiences who were laughing and loving it and having a great time”. However, when after the review show, John Simon, a “famously cantankerous” reviewer for New York magazine, wrote a “shitty review”. Following its publication, the audiences seemed to enjoy the play less because, according to Streep, “they were told how to feel.”
It was at that point that Streep began to “hate the critics”. During the time at which Streep performed in a number of plays in New York City, she’d have a “terrible anxiety and nauseating feeling” when going to buy the papers in the morning to see what the “three reviewers who really mattered – Clive Barnes, John Simon, and Mel Gussow” had written about her.
Trelawny of the Wells is the 1898 play by Arthur Wing Pinero that tells of a theatre performer who tries to sacrifice his profession in order to fall in love but subsequently finds that he is unable to adapt to the norms and customs of everyday society.
The critic Streep had in mind, John Simon, had been notoriously spiky when it came to his assessment of the actors of Broadway, so Streep might needn’t have felt too bad about herself. However, it’s fair to say that any actor would have their confidence knocked when their abilities are called into question.
However, Streep responded in the best way possible by choosing to ignore the critics. Just a few years later, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for The Deer Hunter and followed up 12 months from then by winning the ‘Best Actress’ Oscar for her effort in Kramer vs. Kramer.
Any lesser actor might have had their careers crumble before their eyes, but Streep stayed true to her belief in herself and continued to deliver some of the most memorable efforts in the history of cinema.
