MERYL STREEP
The legendary star takes on a surprising new challenge.
She’s done everything from heavy dramas to light comedies and musicals, and now Meryl Streep is exploring uncharted career territory. She’s signed to star in her first TV series, The Nix. “She’s really passionate about telling women’s stories,” Michael Schulman, author of Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, tells Closer. “And she’s looking for projects that will challenge her.”
The Nix should do that. Based on Nathan Hill’s new best-selling novel, the series will cast the big-screen legend as a former ’60s radical who creates a media frenzy when she throws a rock at a conservative presidential candidate, leading to a clash with her long-estranged son. “Meryl’s people told her it was one of the hottest properties out there,” a friend says. “She read it and was enthralled.”
She was also excited by the prospect of working with executive producer J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Wars: The Force Awakens). “Meryl has been a fan of J.J.’s for a long time,” the friend says. “There’s not much he touches that isn’t spun into gold.”
Meryl’s daughters, actresses Mamie, 33, and Grace Gummer, 30, have found success on episodic TV and encouraged her to give it a go. Says her friend, “For the girls, it was like, ‘Jump in, Mom, the water’s fine!’ ”
The 67-year-old star’s peers, Jessica Lange and Glenn Close, also urged their longtime pal to take the plunge, having won Emmys for American Horror Story and Damages, respectively. “It’s been a running joke between them that Glenn and Jessica had to move to TV because every time there’s a great film role for a woman of a certain age, Meryl is first in line!” her friend says. “But really, they root for each other.”
This isn’t the first time Meryl has done TV — she co-starred in the miniseries Holocaust in 1978 and Angels in America in 2003 — but The Nix (which will be produced by Warner Bros. but hasn’t yet been sold to a network) represents her biggest small-screen commitment ever. “She chooses her projects based on what excites her and not necessarily the medium,” says Schulman. “Meryl will go where the interesting work is.”
“If I’m not confident I can portray a character perfectly, I won’t try.”
— Meryl