Why Meryl Streep regrets appearing in ‘Julia’
Appearing in some brilliant films and achieving numerous accolades, Meryl Streep is one of the best in the industry. The actor began her career in the theatre before moving to the big screen, and landing roles in The Deer Hunter and the praised Kramer vs Kramer. Streep’s film debut was alongside another acting legend, Jane Fonda, in Fred Zinnemann’s 1977 Holocaust drama Julia, a career move she has come to regret despite its positives for her work.
Julia is based on Lillian Hellman’s memoir Pentimento, published in 1973 and focuses on the author’s relationship with her close friend Julia during her fight against the Nazi regime. In addition to Streep and Fonda, the film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, and Maximilian Schell. Julia’s success can be traced to its gross $20.7 million against its $7 million budget and 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.
Streep made her debut as Anne Marie, a socialite living in New York. The character appears at the film’s midpoint when Hellman is enjoying her first taste of professional success with the 1934 Broadway premiere of The Children’s Hour, a success soon overshadowed by (unseen) creative failures. Despite being the film that introduced Streep to the global stardom and industry status she now resides in, the star deeply regrets appearing in Julia.
“I had a bad wig, and they took the words from the scene I shot with Jane and put them in my mouth in a different scene,” Streep said, according to Meryl Streep: Anatomy of an Actor, written by Karina Longworth. “I thought, ‘I’ve made a terrible mistake, no more movies. I hate this business.'”
Fortunately, Streep did not quit the business and appeared in Michael Cimino’s emotionally harrowing war drama The Deep Hunter just a year later. The actor played Linda, the object of the two main characters’ desires. Feeling that her character’s lines were negligible and unnecessary, Streep spoke with the director and concluded she should write her own lines. This part was followed by a role in Woody Allen’s Manhatten in 1979 alongside Michael Murphy and Diane Keaton.
From this, Streep’s career gained momentum, and the star finally gained some leading roles in Jerry Schatzberg’s The Seduction of Joe Tynan and Robert Benton’s Kramer vs Kramer. Her 1982 drama film Sophie’s Choice is one of the star’s most notable acting credits, in which she delivered an emotionally powerful and unforgettable performance after learning Polish for it. “I thought it would be a piece of cake, like picking up Italian or French or something—but it’s not,” Streep admitted. “It’s a lot like Latin because there are seven cases, I think—my teacher will kill me if I don’t get this right—grammar wasn’t my strong point, I can get the accent.”
She added: “Anyway, because of that, it was real hard to learn. You have to parse every sentence as you speak it, every word changes its ending according to whether it’s the object of a sentence or the subject or the indirect object. It’s really wild.”
Check out Streep’s film debut below.
