Chronology: 1987
With director Hector Babenco on the set of “Ironweed” in Albany, New York. Streep plays homeless alchoholic Helen Archer – one of her most unusual performances in the ‘1980s. Streep also appears on the cover of Life Magazine.
Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep continued their on-screen relationship with the oddest possible choice – they joined director Hector Babenco in his hopelessly sad drama “Ironweed”, based on the novel by William Kennedy. Nicholson plays a schizophrenic drifter in 1938’s Albany, New York, who spends Halloween in his home town after returning there for the first time in decades. If moviegoers ever had problems recognizing Streep, it was in “Ironweed”. Hidden under a felt hat and dressed in dirty rags, she plays Nicholson’s companion Helen Archer, who was a successful singer in the past, before she lost her home – and her mind. While “Ironweed” was hard to watch, it grossed 7 million dollars in the USA and recognized its stars, Nicholson and Streep, with nominations for both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award.
A big project that never came to fruition was Oliver Stone’s big screen adaptation of “Evita”, for which Meryl Streep was cast in the lead and went as far as recording songs in New. But the project was delayed twice and stopped before production started in 1989, after which Streep left the project. The failure of the project was highly publicised back in the day. It took eight more years, as well as Alan Parker and Madonna, to bring Evita to the screen. Ironically, Oliver Stone also prepared a biopic on Margaret Thatcher with Streep in the lead in the mid-2000s, which fell through as well.
www.simplystreep.com
