Yesterday, Meryl Streep and John Wells have attended the Paris premiere for “August: Osage County”. Meryl talked to Associated Press about the film and her recent Oscar nomination. “”I saw the play seven years ago. I remember it hit all of us like a freight train … I was entranced, it made me laugh and it shocked me”. Streep said actors were supposed to relish playing difficult characters but that the “reality is that where it begins, where it emanates from is a very unpleasant place.”
“She has cancer in her mouth. She chooses to smoke constantly in the face of that, she has chemotherapy … she’s a drug addict … it’s all a toxic mix, a nasty place to live.” But she added that it was also liberating “to play a person who says exactly what she thinks, never with a cover, never, never being nice, no thought of diplomacy. So that’s a wonderful free feeling”. Streep said she was thrilled at the Oscar nomination and that people were “still willing to look at my work and to look at it fresh”. “That is the most unbelievable thing, that they are not tired of me yet or of my work so I’m very happy about that. Very gratified,” she said.”