Chronology: 1997
Meryl Streep stars in her friend Jim Abrahams’ television film “…First Do No Harm”, for which she receives a Primetime Emmy nomination. She is also honored at Dartmouth College and visits Vassar College for a special evening.
In one of her rare appearances on television, Meryl Streep plays a tiger mother going to lenghts to find a miracle that can cure her sick child, in a deeply personal story from director Jim Abrahams, who sheds light on a family’s struggle with a child’s epilepsy and the American healthcare system. Streep told TV Guide in February 1997: “It wasn’t like I was avoiding TV all this time. Honestly, no one ever offered me any interesting parts. But when I heard about this movie, the story was so good, I didn’t have a choice”.
I was pregnant with my youngest about the same time that Nancy was pregnant with Charlie. And when he was about a year old, Charlie began to manifest symptoms of epilepsy. So I was familiar with their ordeal as they sort of negotiated this medical labyrinth to find a treatment for him that would make him better. He had a miraculous reaction [to the Ketogenic Diet]. From 90 seizures a day, he had none! This was a project that we’d talked about making as a feature. But we thought seven people would see it. And we thought the best way to get the largest possible audience would be to put it on TV. (Meryl Streep, Desert News, February 13, 1997)
“…First Do No Harm” was well received upon its television premiere in February 1997. The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: “The most moving and most liberating scenes in the picture are those in which Lori finally refuses to allow the accountability for her child’s health to be made solely by others. Streep’s touching veracity in those scenes takes this compelling story out of the realm of advocacy and into the arena of fascinating television drama.” Meryl Streep received Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her performance, but didn’t win.
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