QUEEN MERYL

Meryl Streep, actor, wife, mother, and feminist spokesperson, has had a sensational career.

With 21 Oscar nominations and three wins, along with multiple international acting awards, Streep can aptly be called Queen Meryl, the most celebrated actor in America. Entertainment journalist Carlson (I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy, 2017) gleefully recounts Streep’s career from her earnest performance as the Virgin Mary in a family Nativity play (she was 6) to her acclaimed roles in The Devil Wears Prada, Iron Lady, and The Post. As a student at the Yale School of Drama, Streep stood out for her ability to create complex characters, and she was often cast in Yale Repertory Theatre shows—while holding down off-campus jobs to pay her tuition. After graduating at 26, she immediately became “a Broadway starlet,” Carlson discovered, thanks to the support of Joe Papp, founder of the Public Theater. Her film career took off in 1977 when she was cast in Julia, a drama starring Jane Fonda. Fonda encouraged Streep to improvise and also “imparted an object lesson in kindness” that inspired Streep’s generosity to her less experienced co-stars. Drawing on a copious number of articles, reviews, profiles, and interviews as well as archival material and a previous biography of Streep, Carlson creates a mostly engaging, deeply admiring chronicle of Streep’s life: her long marriage to sculptor Don Gummer, motherhood, sometimes unexpected role choices, friendships, political activism and views, and the movie synopses, production anecdotes, and reviews that document Streep’s prolific acting career. Although she was highly praised for most of her work, some dissenting voices emerged in the 1980s. “Streep can come off like a piece of fine china, white, hard, perfect,” one critic wrote. She never felt perfect, she admitted, but most of the time, she felt confident. “Usually I think I can play anything,” she told an interviewer in 1980. “I have great faith in myself.”

An enthusiastic homage to a legend.