“I had a beef with her”: The 1992 co-star who posed a problem for Meryl Streep
Though her stern-faced, foul-eyed character in The Devil Wears Prada universe might lead us to think otherwise, it’s obvious that Meryl Streep is nothing but kind-hearted, considerate, and compassionate, moving through a cut-throat industry with grace and integrity.
The catty meanness and icy elegance of Streep’s fashion boss Miranda Priestly is in direct contrast to the actor’s kind eyes, and her other esteemed roles, such as the doting mother in Mamma Mia! and the tender housewife in The Bridges of Madison County, all of which cement her as one of the good ones in Hollywood. So it might surprise you to find out that Streep had an active ‘beef’ with a co-star on the set of 1992’s Death Becomes Her.
Beady-eyed fans will be aware that she’s shared rather harsh words about the project before, mainly regarding the overwhelming usage of CGI, claiming, “You stand there like a piece of machinery; they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out, but it’s not fun to act to a lampstand. It was like being at the dentist.”
Turns out, this wasn’t her only qualm on set. Streep, who would have been around 43 years old at the time, couldn’t get to grips with co-star Goldie Hawn’s tendency to always show up late. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she explained how her tardiness quickly became a nuisance for those ready to go on set.
Importantly, Streep and Hawn were required to work closely together on set, as the pair of them ingest a potion that promises eternal youth, and Dr Ernest Menville, played by Bruce Willis, also gets caught up in the whole affair.
With good-natured candour, Streep recalled, “Goldie, she was always late to set, but she was so adorable”, but this tendency to run behind was less than ideal because Streep was always on time.
Tardy, but arriving in style in her red convertible that she drove herself, is the way the red-haired actor liked to roll, and so, regardless, Hawn was beloved to all; she was always apologetic, of course, but was also forgiven instantaneously. On the sidelines, Streep quietly fumed: “And everybody thought, ‘Oh, she’s so cute. So, I had a beef with her, but I loved her. I love her”.
Streep’s small issue with Hawn speaks to her wider experience in the industry; the beloved icon was once a timid girl who felt like an imposter in the world of neon-lit fairytales, which worsened when, famously, producer Dino De Laurentiis called Meryl Streep “ugly” to her face during an audition for the 1976 film King Kong.
Despite climbing up the ranks further than De Laurentiis would ever hope to, Streep has often talked about feeling like an outsider or feeling shunned for her unusual looks, so Hawn’s ability to soar in late to the set and shmooze the guys so they’d forget about the money it was costing them represented for her something she never felt she deserved: complete confidence. Luckily, she seems to have bags of it now.
