1993 brought a severe change that played out behind the scenes, but had a lasting impact on the trajectory of Meryl’s career in the mid-90s. While disappointed with the lack of good roles in Hollywood and the slim revenue of her previous films, Streep eyed to leave Los Angeles. When she lobbied for the lead role in Merchant Ivory’s “Remains of the Day”, but was turned down by Mike Nichols of all people, she felt betrayed by her longtime agent, Sam Cohn. She cut ties with her agency, moved her family back to Connecticut and signed with the Creative Artists Agency. According to a 1994 article in The New York Times, Strep was quoted: “Mike knows what he did, but unfortunately Sam wore the scar. My relationship with them is in the ‘life’s too short to be mad category. Mike is someone I share an enormous amount of history with. He has a big part of my heart. I was very upset to be upset. I have too much of a need for forgiveness in my life.”

CAA’s first big deal for Streep was the lead role in a big screen adaptation of Isabel Allende’s novel “The House of the Spirits”, a curious adaptation that was an immense success in Europe and an utter failure in the United States. The reason for this is as simple as it is common in Hollywood – a remarkable piece of Chilean literature was whitewashed by giving all the lead parts to white actors while Chilean actors were reduced to the parts of servants or rape victims. Filmed in Denmark, with additional scenes filmed in Lisbon and Alentejo, Portugal, the film attracted a lot of buzz during its making with numerous press conferences in the countries where it was shot. Its US release, however, was not met with a warm welcome. In its first weekend, the movie drew a poor $1.8 million at the box office. It fared much with a whopping $55 million in European ticket sales and received 4 Robert Awards, Denmark’s equivalent to the Oscar, for Best Film, Screenplay, Editing and Sound.

Feature Films

The House of the Spirits

October 21, 1993 (Germany)