7-DAY TV GUIDE

As the leading lady in flicks on Netflix and Foxtel, Meryl Streep’s star is far from fading, write Holly Byrnes and Hillary morgan

EVEN Meryl Streep knows a thing or two about wardrobe malfunctions. While her slate is clean on the red carpet, the multiple Oscar winner and star of new Netflix movie The Prom concedes her own high school dance was a style disaster. “I wore a dress that had spaghetti straps,” Streep recalls.

“I got into the back seat of the car, sat down and pop, pop! Both of my straps popped off!” she laughs.

“There was nothing to hold that dress up except my two arms.” Telling the true story of a young girl not allowed to bring her girlfriend to the prom was too important a task for Streep to pass on. After receiving scathing reviews for their lastgasp Broadway show, Dee Dee (Streep) and her fellow fading co-stars try to change their own fortunes by challenging a school board to allow the same-sex couple to attend the prom. Streep knows the impact of bad reviews, but took heed from one bagging in her largely acclaimed role in Sophie’s Choice.

“A very famous critic wrote a very bad review. She said I should ‘giggle more and cry less’. I have taken that criticism to heart and I sort of agree with her,” she laughs.

Offering levity during a pandemic is a privilege, Streep says.

“I actually think everybody is going to look at (The Prom) differently and take away their own experience,” she says.

“If you have been on the raw end of intolerance, you’re going to come away with a hopeful feeling.

If you have been someone who has been intolerant, you’ll maybe have a little window opened in your heart.”

Her latest release, Let Them All Talk, was filmed on a cruise ship before COVID hit and the industry was largely dry-docked.

“We shot on the Queen Mary 2 and it couldn’t get much more attractive than on that particular ship. It was pretty spectacular,” Streep says.

“It was last August. We crossed for seven or eight days and made the whole movie pretty much there and then other than two or three scenes in England, once we had landed. We made it up as we went along.”

Ad-libbing with co-stars Candice Bergen and Dianne Weist challenged the 21-time Oscar nominee in ways she hasn’t been tested before.

“It was really fun and really lively, interesting and imaginative. It was a kick but it was also terrifying!”

Surviving and thriving in such a brutal industry like Hollywood may have something to do with the stability of her 42-year marriage to Don Gummer.

Asked for the secret to lasting love, she laughs again: “I have no idea. People think being married to an actor is hard but try being married to an artist.”

“My husband does understand the deal – the sort of serial fixation that actors have with their work that makes things hard.

“His sensibility is similar. I never have to say ‘It’s not you, I’m just thinking about this film now and it’s driving me crazy.’ Because I know it can be the same for him.”

LET THEM ALL TALK

streaming, foxtel on demand

THE PROM

streaming, netflix