“Just an opinion”: When Meryl Streep was told she was too ugly to star in ‘King Kong’
The standards for women in Hollywood have been famously cruel and restrictive, with actors from all generations in the business talking about the reductive and one-dimensional labels that have informed their identity on and off screen. Whether it be the harrowing experiences of Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears or the ritualised periods of abuse that all women in the public eye are subject to at some point in their career, fame becomes a complicated thing that forces you into dehumanising limelight, leading you to be scrutinised over your appearance, personal life and relationships.
For Meryl Streep, many of her early experiences in the industry were defined by this very thing, with producers critiquing her looks and one telling her that she was too ugly for a role.
Many women in the film industry are constantly told that they are either too much or not enough, with impossible standards for how they need to look that can lead some to live a life of constant self-regulation and surveillance as they scramble to fit into boxes that don’t fit them. Compared to the physical standards in Hollywood for men, which are virtually non-existent, male actors are praised for practically everything they do and never judged for their appearance, with a lax moral code that allows them to get away with behaviour that would never be accepted if displayed by anyone else.
It was this particular environment that led Streep to have a turbulent path to success, with studio executives attempting to typecast her and experiencing sexual harassment and abuse from colleagues, even describing her first film role in which her co-star slapped her in the face. Streep had been told as a young actor that she wasn’t pretty enough to work in the industry, which surprisingly did not deter her from pursuing a career, even though this recirculated in 1976 when auditioning for the lead role in King Kong.
During her audition for the film, Streep described walking in only to overhear a conversation between the producer and his son, saying, “I walked in, and his son was sitting there, very excited that he’d brought in this new actress. And the father said to his son in Italian, because I understand Italian, he said, ‘che brutta’, you know, ‘Why do you bring me this ugly thing?’”
This would be a completely jarring and upsetting thing to overhear when preparing to perform, especially when your nerves are already heightened, and you feel slightly insecure about having to bare your soul to a room of strangers. However, Streep didn’t let this knock her, and she replied to the producers saying, “I’m sorry you think I’m too ugly for your movie, but yours is just an opinion out of thousands”.
While Streep didn’t end up booking the part and it later went to Jessica Lange, hopefully her words stuck with the producers and evoked just a spark of shame when they realised that she could hear everything they were saying. Despite the fact that people claim Hollywood is now the most inclusive and progressive place on earth, there are still many stories similar to this that happen now, and the fight for equal treatment in the film industry continues.
