Meryl Streep is a Hollywood standout for her magnificent 30-year career, 15 Oscar nominations and recent hot run of box office hits The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia! and Julie & Julia, but study her elegant face and the 60-year-old elevates again. Sitting in a room on the 14th floor of a Manhattan hotel overlooking Central Park, small, delicate lines are visible on Streep’s face. In an era of Hollywood friendly injectables Dysport and Botox and line fillers Restylane and Radiesse, this is a rare sight for sit-down meetings with actresses in their 30s and beyond. Streep is not interested in a chemical or surgical touch up and is happy to let time do what it has to do. “I think people look funny when they freeze their faces,” Streep explains. “That’s just me. I don’t get it.” The topic is examined in a hilarious scene in Streep’s new comedy It’s Complicated, co-starring Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. Streep plays Jane, a divorcee attempting to move on after her husband (Baldwin) leaves her for a younger woman. In the scene Jane, upset an eyelid is sagging, visits a cosmetic surgeon in her seaside Californian home town of Santa Barbara. Jane ends up fleeing the surgery when the doctor goes into detail about slicing the skin on her forehead, pulling it back and then sticking it in its new position with staples. “To each his own,” Streep dismisses, refusing to criticise those of her peers who opt for the scalpel and staples or a syringe. “I understand the chagrin which comes with ageing, especially for a woman.”

It’s Complicated continues Streep’s extraordinary run at the box office where she sits alongside Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr as Hollywood’s most consistent box office draws. It’s Complicated has made more than $US35 million ($A39 million) since opening in North American theatres on Christmas Day. While Smith and Downey Jr’s hits draw teen and young male adult audiences, Streep’s films tap into demographics Hollywood has found tough to entice to cinemas: women and older patrons. Her pay cheque per movie has also risen, with Streep earning a reported $US24 million ($A26.88 million) the past year. Just two actresses earned more: Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie. Streep’s beauty secret is not yoga or pilates. She keeps fit by swimming 55 laps several times a week. Nancy Meyers, 60, was inspired to write and direct It’s Complicated after her husband, Hollywood director-screenwriter-writer Charles Shyer, left her for a younger woman. Streep had Meyers in stitches when they shot the scene with the cosmetic surgeon. “Meryl does a really clever thing in that scene where she talks about women who have bad face lifts,” Meyers, who directed Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want, The Holiday and The Parent Trap, says. “She does this amazing trick with her face where she pushes her cheekbones way up. When I saw her do that, I was screaming with laughter. “It was really brilliant of her.”

Her Academy nominations began in 1978 for Deer Hunter and include The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Silkwood (1981), Out of Africa (1985), as Aussie Lindy Chamberlain in Evil Angels (1988), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and last year’s drama, Doubt. Streep’s two wins were for Kramer vs Kramer (1979) and Sophie’s Choice (1982). The films often made money, but The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia! combined took in almost $US1 billion at the box office, transforming Streep into the ultimate Hollywood force with highly profitable movies that garner Oscar and other awards attention. “I need Meryl to work because my career is now tied to hers,” jokes Martin, the silver-haired 64-year-old comedian and Emmy and Grammy winner, who plays Jane’s love interest in It’s Complicated. Hollywood studios and producers are flooding Streep with scripts. Most she knocks back, but Streep has found it difficult to give up the gems. “I made seven movies in the last two and half years,” Streep says, feigning exhaustion. “I haven’t done that ever in my whole life.” Adding to Streep’s charm is her down-to-earth presence. She is Hollywood royalty, but does not act like it. She does not have a publicist shadowing her for interviews. Streep also does not rely on a personal stylist.

“I don’t know,” Streep replies when asked who designed the black cardigan, black pants and purple buttoned up shirt she is wearing for this interview. “I’ve had it for years. I’ve had this cardigan since my son was born.” Her son, Henry, turned 30 in November. Streep has four children with her sculptor husband Don Gummer, with Henry the oldest followed by daughters Mamie, 26, Grace, 23, and Louisa, 18. Streep and Gummer have been married for 31 years, again putting her in a rare bracket with Hollywood couples. The actress, just like her clothes selection, apparently does not invest much time in attempting to examine why her marriage works and others fail. “I have no idea,” Streep says. After a moment’s thought, she reaches for an answer. “He’s an artist and the sensibilities we have are similar,” Streep, who was born in New Jersey and studied drama at Vassar College and Yale School of Drama, says. Martin says Streep is reshaping the Hollywood landscape with successful films for older audiences. “I think it’s a rediscovered genre,” the comedian says. “They used to do this a lot and I think this movie, It’s Complicated, clearly defines a genre, I think, for mature audiences, which is a vast number of people now.” Streep, of course, is not comfortable with praise. She does have some advice for younger actresses.

The key, Streep says, is remaining an individual. “I think for young women it’s hard (to become a breakout star) because they all think they have to look a certain way,” Streep explains. “That’s a trap.”

It’s Complicated opens in Australia on January 7.