The best way to win the respect of your acting peers is to go ugly. Monstrously ugly. For example, people fawn over those brave enough to play Hitler. Or a wife-beater. Or some kind of sex offender.
In the case of Meryl Streep, she’s being touted as a likely Oscar winner for her turn as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
It takes nerve to play the biggest on-screen monster since Cloverfield.
Alas, it hasn’t opened on these British shores yet (sad really, it would’ve been perfectly pitched amongst the strikes currently going on – perhaps we can have some more when it comes out, eh unions?) but critics have been making a fair ol’ noise about it.
The Guardian referred to Streep’s performance as “astonishing and all but flawless; a masterpiece of mimicry which re-imagines Thatcher in all her half-forgotten glory,” while the Daily Mail noted; “Streep’s portrayal will, I have no doubt, come to be seen as a magnificent portrait of Lady Thatcher.”
You’ll be thrilled to learn that, in the film, we do get to see Thatcher as a frail old woman, reminding us all that she is indeed, about to die.
Of course, as Hollywood is prone to copy other Oscar winning films, we strongly suspect we’ll be seeing Brad Pitt playing Norman Tebbit and a gritty turn from Angelina Jolie playing Edwina Curry in a biopic about eggs and shagging John Major (played by a hatstand painted grey).
Oscar nominations will be announced on Los Angeles on January 24th, and The Iron Lady is directed by Phyllida Lloyd, which is clearly not a real name.
Splendid.