Editing Meryl Streep (section)

==Reception and legacy==
[[File:Meryl streep harvard commencement 2010 crop.JPG|thumb|upright|Streep receiving an honorary degree from [[Harvard University]] in 2010]]

In 2004, Streep was awarded the [[AFI Life Achievement Award]] by the [[American Film Institute|board of directors of the American Film Institute]].<ref>{{cite web|title=2004 Meryl Streep Tribute|url=http://afi.com/LAA/laa04.aspx|publisher=[[American Film Institute]]|access-date=May 13, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706101637/http://afi.com/LAA/laa04.aspx|archive-date=July 6, 2015}}</ref> In 2011, she received a [[Kennedy Center Honors]], introduced by [[Tracey Ullman]], and speeches by 2009 Kennedy Center Honoree [[Robert De Niro]] and 2003 Kennedy Center Honoree [[Mike Nichols]]. Those also to honor Streep included, [[Kevin Kline]], [[Emily Blunt]], [[Stanley Tucci]], and [[Anne Hathaway]]. The tribute ended with the whole cast who sang "She's My Pal", a play on "He's My Pal" from ''[[Ironweed (film)|Ironweed]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/meryl-streep-kennedy-center-honors-robert-de-niro-269545|title= 'Iron Lady' Star Meryl Streep Celebrated By Past Co-Stars at Kennedy Center Honors|website= [[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date= December 5, 2011|access-date= May 11, 2020}}</ref>

In November 2014, [[President Barack Obama]] bestowed upon Streep the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]], the nation's highest civilian honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/meryl-streep-president-obama-medal-of-freedom|title= President Obama Presents Meryl Streep with Medal of Freedom|website= [[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|date= November 24, 2014|access-date= May 11, 2020}}</ref> The citation reads as follows, "Meryl Streep is one of the most widely known and acclaimed actors in history. Ms. Streep has captured our imaginations with her unparalleled ability to portray a wide range of roles and attract an audience that has only grown over time, portraying characters who embody the full range of the human experience."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2014/11/presidential-medal-of-freedom-meryl-streep-tom-brokaw-1201280792/|title= Presidential Medal Of Freedom Honorees Include Meryl Streep, Tom Brokaw & Stephen Sondheim|website= [[Deadline Hollywood]]|date= November 10, 2014|access-date= May 11, 2020}}</ref> In January 2017, [[Viola Davis]] presented Streep with the [[Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award|Cecil B. DeMille]] at the [[Golden Globes]]. Davis stated to Streep "You make me proud to be an artist".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2017/01/golden-globes-meryl-streep-cecil-b-demille-lifetime-achievement-1201764358/|title= Golden Globes: Meryl Streep Calls Out Donald Trump in Cecile B. DeMille Award Acceptance Speech|website= [[IndieWire]]|date= January 9, 2017|access-date= May 11, 2020}}</ref> In her acceptance speech, Streep quoted the recently departed [[Carrie Fisher]], saying, "Take your broken heart and make it into art."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/the-carrie-fisher-quote-meryl-streep-spoke-at-the-golden-globes-is-the-inspiration-all-creative-people-need-28919|title= The Carrie Fisher Quote Meryl Streep Spoke At The Golden Globes Is The Inspiration All Creative People Need|website= [[Bustle (magazine)|Bustle]]|date= January 9, 2017|access-date= May 11, 2020}}</ref>

''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' commented that "it's hard to imagine that there was a time before Meryl Streep was the greatest-living actress".<ref name="VF">{{cite magazine|first=Julie|last=Miller|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/meryl-streep-confidence|title=Here's Where Meryl Streep Found the Confidence to Become an Actress|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=June 19, 2015|access-date=July 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622204546/http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/meryl-streep-confidence|archive-date=June 22, 2015}}</ref> Emma Brockes of ''The Guardian'' notes that despite Streep's being "one of the most famous actresses in the world", it is "strangely hard to pin an image on Streep", in a career where she has "laboured to establish herself as an actor whose roots lie in ordinary life".<ref name="Brockes06">{{cite news|author=Brockes, Emma|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/23/awardsandprizes|title=The devil in Ms Streep|newspaper=The Guardian|date=September 23, 2006|access-date=July 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703034438/http://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/23/awardsandprizes|archive-date=July 3, 2015}}</ref> Despite her success, Streep has always been modest about her own acting and achievements in cinema. She has stated that she has no particular method when it comes to acting, learning from the days of her early studies that she cannot articulate her practice. She said in 1987, "I have a smattering of things I've learned from different teachers, but nothing I can put into a valise and open it up and say 'Now, which one would you like?' Nothing I can count on, and that makes it more dangerous. But then, the danger makes it more exciting." She has stated that her ideal director is one who gives her complete artistic control, allowing her to have a degree of improvisation and to learn from her mistakes.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=12}}

{{quote box|width=25em|align=left|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|quote=Women are better at acting than men. Why? Because we have to be. If successfully convincing somebody bigger than you of something he doesn't know is a survival skill, this is how women have survived through the millennia. Pretending is not just play. Pretending is imagined possibility. Pretending or acting is a very valuable life skill, and we all do it. All the time.|source={{mdash}} Streep on acting{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=7}}}}

Karina Longworth notes how "external" Streep's performances are, "chameleonic" in her impersonation of characters, "subsuming herself into them, rather than personifying them". In her early roles such as ''Manhattan'' and ''Kramer vs. Kramer'', she was compared to both [[Diane Keaton]] and [[Jill Clayburgh]], in that her characters were unsympathetic, which Streep has attributed to the tendency to be drawn to playing women who are difficult to like and lack empathy.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=12}} Streep has stated that many consider her to be a technical actor, but she professed that it comes down to her love of reading the initial script, adding, "I come ready and I don't want to screw around and waste the first 10 takes on adjusting lighting and everybody else getting comfortable".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=16}}

Mike Nichols, who directed Streep in ''Silkwood'', ''Heartburn'', ''Postcards from the Edge'', and ''Angels in America'', praised Streep's ability to transform herself into her characters, remarking that, "In every role, she becomes a totally new human being. As she becomes the person she is portraying, the other performers begin to react to her as if she were that person."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=70}} He said that directing her is "so much like falling in love that it has the characteristics of a time which you remember as magical, but which is shrouded in mystery".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=73}} He also noted that Streep's acting ability had a profound impact on her co-stars, and that "one could improve by 1000% purely by watching her".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=70}} Longworth believes that in nearly every film, Streep has "sly infused" a feminist point of view in her portrayals.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=15}} However, film critic [[Molly Haskell]] has stated, "None of her heroines are feminist, strictly speaking. Yet, they uncannily embody various crosscurrents of experience in the last twenty years, as women have re-defined themselves against the background of the women's movement".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=16}}

[[File:Meryl Streep - Walk of Fame.jpg|thumb|Streep's star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]]]]

Streep is well known for her ability to imitate a wide range of accents<ref>{{cite web|author=Halliday, Ayun|title=Watch Meryl Streep Have Fun with Accents: southern American, Bronx, Polish, Irish, Australian, Yiddish & More|url=http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/meryl-streep-has-fun-with-accents.html|website=Open Culture|access-date=May 13, 2015|date=March 18, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513030332/http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/meryl-streep-has-fun-with-accents.html|archive-date=May 13, 2015}}</ref> – from Danish in ''[[Out of Africa (film)|Out of Africa]]'' (1985) to British [[Received Pronunciation]] in ''[[The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)|The French Lieutenant's Woman]]'' (1981), ''[[Plenty (film)|Plenty]]'' (1985), and ''[[The Iron Lady (film)|The Iron Lady]]'' (2011); Italian in ''[[The Bridges of Madison County (film)|The Bridges of Madison County]]'' (1995); a southern American accent in ''[[The Seduction of Joe Tynan]]'' (1979); a [[North-Central American English|Minnesota accent]] in ''[[A Prairie Home Companion (film)|A Prairie Home Companion]]'' (2006); [[Western New England English|Upstate New York]] in ''[[Ironweed (film)|Ironweed]]'' (1987); and a heavy [[Bronx]] accent in ''[[Doubt (2008 film)|Doubt]]'' (2008). Streep has stated that she grew up listening to artists such as [[Barbra Streisand]], [[the Beatles]], and [[Bob Dylan]], and she learned a lot about how to use her voice, her "instrument", by listening to Barbra Streisand's albums.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146362798/meryl-streep-the-fresh-air-interview?ft=1&f=13|title=Meryl Streep: The Fresh Air Interview : NPR|date=February 6, 2012|work=NPR|access-date=February 7, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206175451/http://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146362798/meryl-streep-the-fresh-air-interview?ft=1&f=13|archive-date=February 6, 2012}}<br />- {{cite news|title=Meryl Streep: The Fresh Air Interview|url=https://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146362798/meryl-streep-the-fresh-air-interview?ft=1&f=13|publisher=[[NPR]]|access-date=February 6, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402085920/http://www.npr.org/2012/02/06/146362798/meryl-streep-the-fresh-air-interview?ft=1&f=13|archive-date=April 2, 2015}}<br />- {{cite news |title=How Barbra Streisand music inspired Meryl Streep|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/371657834/meryl-streep-the-fresh-air-intervie | publisher = [[NPR]]| access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> In the film ''[[Evil Angels (film)|Evil Angels]]'' (1988, released in the U.S. as ''A Cry in the Dark''), in which she portrays a New Zealand transplant to Australia, Streep developed a hybrid of Australian and New Zealand English. Her performance received the [[Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role]],{{sfn|Waldo|2006|p=209}}{{sfn|Speed|Wilson|1989|p=38|ps=. "Meryl Streep, with black hair and a convincing Aussie accent, is outstanding as Mrs Chamberlain."}} as well as [[Prix d'interprétation féminine|Best Actress]] at the [[Cannes Film Festival]], and the [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress]].{{Sfn|Eberwein|2010|p=221}}

For her role in the film ''[[Sophie's Choice (film)|Sophie's Choice]]'' (1982), Streep spoke both English and German with a Polish accent, as well as Polish itself.{{sfn|Allison|Goethals|2013|p=3}} In ''The Iron Lady'', she reproduced the vocal style of [[Margaret Thatcher]] from the time before Thatcher became Britain's Prime Minister, and after she had taken elocution lessons to change her pitch, pronunciation, and delivery.<ref>{{cite news|author=Sawer, Patrick|title=How Maggie Thatcher was remade|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/8999746/How-Maggie-Thatcher-was-remade.html|work=The Telegraph|date=January 8, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121005244/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/8999746/How-Maggie-Thatcher-was-remade.html|archive-date=January 21, 2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Allison|Goethals|2013|p=3}} Streep has commented that using accents as part of her acting is a technique she views as an obvious requirement in her portrayal of a character.{{Sfn|Elliott|Manning|Saltau|Surbey|2011|p=180}}
When questioned in [[Belfast]] as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied in a reportedly "perfect" Belfast accent: "I listen."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78GaH2P0rnE| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211027/78GaH2P0rnE| archive-date=October 27, 2021|title=Best of Meryl Streep – Interviews – Part 6| date=November 17, 2009|via=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>[http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/oscar_winner_boosts_new_arts_centre_plan_1_1857735 Oscar winner boosts new arts centre plan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605203635/http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/oscar_winner_boosts_new_arts_centre_plan_1_1857735 |date=June 5, 2012 }}. Johnston Publishing. Retrieved December 6, 2011.</ref>{{Sfn|Elliott|Manning|Saltau|Surbey|2011|p=180}}