The 1996 movie that had Meryl Streep issuing death threats: “If she gets it, I’ll rip her throat out”
Having evolved into a place where she’s treated like some sort of benevolent deity of the acting profession, it’s hard to imagine Meryl Streep getting so jealous that she’ll start issuing death threats.
However, that’s exactly what she did, which just goes to show that even the all-time greats aren’t immune to the green-eyed monster. When you’re Meryl Streep, you surely can’t have too much to complain about, what with your peers virtually worshipping the ground that you walk on.
Not every one of her peers or contemporaries are fond of the way so many thespians fall over themselves any time they’re in Streep’s orbit or the way her name is spoken in hushed, reverential tones, but when you’ve won three Academy Awards and been nominated 21 times, it comes with the territory.
Realistically, if a talent of Streep’s calibre signals their intention to play a role, it’s as good as theirs. Realistically, if a talent of Streep’s calibre puts in the hard yards, dedicates themselves to preparing for that role, and invests themselves in it completely, then it’s not going to be ripped out of their hands.
And yet, despite having been attached since the late 1980s, when it was in development with Oliver Stone set to direct, she didn’t play Eva Perón in the 1996 musical, Evita. Instead, Alan Parker helmed the biographical picture with Madonna front and centre, and it’s an understatement to say that Streep wasn’t best pleased about it.
On one hand, you can understand why. She’d been circling the part for years, she’d put her pipes through the wringer so that she could convincingly belt out the requisite tunes, and it wasn’t her fault that the 1989 riots in Argentina thwarted the production shortly before it was going to start, with a change in production company and financial issues further pushing back the proposed start date.
Eventually, Stone dropped out, and when Parker came aboard, he stuck with the ‘Queen of Pop’. When word reached Streep’s ears that she was no longer set to play Perón, indignant doesn’t quite cover it. “I can sing better than Madonna,” she raged. “If she gets it, I’ll rip her throat out.”
Can Streep sing better than Madonna? Probably not. It’s one thing to belt out a showstopper in Mamma Mia!, and it’s another altogether to be one of the music industry’s defining stars of the last four decades. Did she rip Madge’s throat out? She did not, which is fair, since murder wouldn’t be a good look for her career.
Bucking the trend of what science has called the worst string of acting performances in cinema history, Madonna even won her only performative prize that wasn’t a Razzie, scooping a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress – Musical or Comedy’ for Evita, all while Streep watched furiously from afar, presumably.
