Happy 62nd Birthday, Meryl Streep! What's Her Finest Onscreen Moment?
It's apparently birthday week for Oscar-winning actresses. On Monday, Nicole Kidman celebrated her 44th, and today, Meryl Streep rings in her 62nd anniversaire. With a record-setting 16 Academy Award nominations, the New Jersey-born actress averages one nod every 3.87 years. In honor of this feat and today's Meryl milestone, let's cut ourselves 3.87 servings of sheet cake each and decide which onscreen moment of hers is the very best in a Sophie's Choice-themed celebration.
How to even begin choosing one moment from the filmography of the most critically acclaimed actress of the modern era? Well, we could start with her two heartbreaking Oscar-winning performances in Sophie's Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer.
Or sift through the many, many films for which she was nominated for a statuette, including The Deer Hunter, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge (below), The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Music of the Heart, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt and Julie & Julia.
Or if you're feeling bold today, maybe you'll choose a sequence from one of Streep's less celebrated films, like Defending Your Life, Death Becomes Her, Mamma Mia! or The Manchurian Candidate remake ...but probably not Prime or Stuck on You. Actually, maybe Stuck on You. Pay your respects to Meryl by wishing her a happy birthday and discussing your favorite performance of hers below.
[Photo: Getty Images]
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The River Wild! I miss you Gauntlet.
Here's an instance where it seems truly impossible to choose. Happy birthday, Ms. Streep!
I probably say "Why is no one ready?" from The Devil Wears Prada once a day. B-day it up, Streeper!
Best role Sofie's Choice, Bridges of Madison County, Adaptation, The River Wild. Sorry I couldn't make a choice between them.
Happy Birthday, Meryl!
"You're a walking lie Helen, and I can see right through you."
Her opening musical number from DEATH BECOMES HER is what I want to see on infinite loop when I go to gay heaven.
To my divine inspiration and to the greatest actress that ever walked the earth--Happy happy birthday!And what pray tell is your greatest role?I bet the one that the public has yet to see --Meryl as Margaret Thatcher!!!
When I was a baby in my stroller you looked at me in the grocery store and almost said something, but then you didn't. You smiled. My mom told me this years later as I don't remember. Now I'm thinking of it and remembering your line from adaptation where you say "I wanna be new, new again like a baby" 'r somthin) it's such a good line. Lucky line, I'm sure everyone has felt that way at one point. In my opinion , it doesn't take a whole death to feel new. It takes a switched state of mind, which can come from a dream! Or doing something you haven't done since you were a child. As well as letting go.. Thanks for being awesome xxo
Okay so this is definitely not her best movie, but in "Marvin's Room" right after [SPOILER ALERT] Diane Keaton gets the call that Leo DiCaprio is not a match to be her bone marrow donor, and it's clear that this is it-they're out of options for her, Meryl has this moment where she's shocked, horrified, disappointed, sad and lost and you see every emotion she's feeling on her face. Then she just embraces Diane. Ugh-it's not even a very good movie, but that damn scene gets me every time. Dammit, Meryl! You're the best!
Too many from which to choose from her sublime performances. I loved her even in "It's Complicated."
I was just thinking to myself today, "StrawberryPain, you will never have the opportunity to play "My Favorite Scene" with ML, and then along came this article! So while I don't know if I could ever name my favorite scene of Ms. Streep's, Ms. Streep happens to star in my all-time favorite scene in all of moviedom. Out of Africa between Karen and Farah:
Farah: How can it be now with me and yourself?
...
Karen: Do you remember how it was on safari? In the afternoons I would send you ahead to look for a camp, and you would wait for me.
Farah: So you can see the fire and come to this place.
Karen: Yes, well, it will be like that. Only this time I will go ahead and wait for you.
Farah: It is far, this place where you are going?
Karen: ...Yes.
Farah: Then you must make this fire very big, so I can find you.
* sob * Thanks for all the moving performances. Meryl, you make every movie better.
I'm sorry, but the correct answer is the scene in Adaptation where she attempts to recreate the dialtone.
I can't believe she's 62! She certainly doesn't look it. I am totally obsessed w/her!! 🙂 Okay....so is it true that her daughter, Louisa, is preggerz??? CAn someone email me @ im_taylor21@yahoo.com......thanks:)
HAPPY B_DAY!!!!!
It's been an astonishing career. Too many great performances.
But this moment is one of her best, from A CRY IN THE DARK. The way she seamlessly goes from incredulity to anger to grief to sarcasam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMu_GRAPKrQ&feature=related
sarcasam = sarcasm.
bridges of madison county and out of africa! ok well how can you seriously ask a streeper what is their favorite movie... lol.. like everything
lol Meryl poking smot..to many i seriously am not going to TRY... i love it all... im seriously addicted to her lol
I'll always think of her in that scene in "Adaptation" were shes laying in a field, and the grass is super green and she looks cosmically serene, anyone who's seen that movie knows what i'm talking about. God I love that woman.
A truly memorable scene is from ironweed when Meryl sings "he's me pal." This is a breaktaking scene, true tragedy....one of the best for sure...Happy birthday to my favorite female actor of all time... best wishes