Editing Meryl Streep (section)

===1980s: Rise to prominence===
In 1979, Streep began workshopping ''Alice in Concert'', a musical version of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', with writer and composer [[Elizabeth Swados]] and director [[Joseph Papp]]; the show was put on at New York's Public Theater from December 1980. [[Frank Rich]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' referred to Streep as the production's "one wonder", but questioned why she devoted so much energy to it.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=44}} By 1980, Streep had progressed to leading roles in films. She was featured on the cover of ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine with the headline "A Star for the 80s"; [[Jack Kroll]] commented, "There's a sense of mystery in her acting; she doesn't simply imitate (although she's a great mimic in private). She transmits a sense of danger, a primal unease lying just below the surface of normal behavior".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=49}}

Streep denounced her fervent media coverage at the time as "excessive hype".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=49}} The [[story within a story]] drama ''[[The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)|The French Lieutenant's Woman]]'' (1981) was Streep's first leading role. The film paired Streep with [[Jeremy Irons]] as contemporary actors, telling their modern story, as well as the [[Victorian era]] drama they were performing. Streep developed an English accent for the part, but considered herself a misfit for the role: "I couldn't help wishing that I was more beautiful".{{sfn|Palmer|Bray|2013|p=227}}{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=49}}{{Efn|Despite Streep's own negative self-body-image, President Obama, while presenting the [[Kennedy Center Honors]], remarked, "Anyone who saw ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' had a crush on her ..."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/celebrity-news-video/8935130/Barack-Obama-reveals-Meryl-Streep-crush-at-Kennedy-Centre-Honours.html|title=Barack Obama reveals Meryl Streep 'crush' at Kennedy Centre Honours|work=The Telegraph|date=December 5, 2011|access-date=July 2, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711104408/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/celebrity-news-video/8935130/Barack-Obama-reveals-Meryl-Streep-crush-at-Kennedy-Centre-Honours.html|archive-date=July 11, 2015}}</ref>}} A ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine article commented that, while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "[[chameleon]]", willing to play any type of role.<ref name="NewYorkMagazineSep1981">{{cite news |last=Denby |first=David |title=Meryl Streep is Madonna and siren in ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' |work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |date=September 21, 1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OUCAAAAMBAJ&q=Meryl+Streep&pg=PA26 |access-date=June 15, 2009 |page=27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116203656/http://books.google.com/books?id=-OUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26&dq=Meryl+Streep&lr=#PPA26,M1 |archive-date=January 16, 2013 }}</ref> Streep was awarded a [[BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role]] for her work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1982/film/actress|title=Film Actress in 1982|publisher=[[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]]|access-date=January 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121015106/http://awards.bafta.org/award/1982/film/actress|archive-date=January 21, 2015}}</ref> The following year, she re-united with Robert Benton for the [[psychological thriller]], ''[[Still of the Night (film)|Still of the Night]]'' (1982), co-starring [[Roy Scheider]] and [[Jessica Tandy]]. [[Vincent Canby]], writing for ''The New York Times'', noted that the film was an homage to the works of [[Alfred Hitchcock]], but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough".<ref>{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby|title='Still of the Night', in Hitchcock Manner |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 20, 1985 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C02E2D8123BF93AA25752C1A964948260 |access-date=June 6, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815033220/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C02E2D8123BF93AA25752C1A964948260 |archive-date=August 15, 2014 }}</ref>

Greater success came later in the year when Streep starred in the drama ''[[Sophie's Choice (film)|Sophie's Choice]]'' (also 1982), portraying a Polish survivor of [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] caught in a love triangle between a young naïve writer ([[Peter MacNicol]]) and a Jewish intellectual ([[Kevin Kline]]). Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise.<ref>{{cite web|first=Eric D.|last=Snider|title=What's the Big Deal?: Sophie's Choice (1982)|url=http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-sophies-choice-1982|website=[[Film.com]]|publisher=[[MTV|MTV Networks]]|access-date=May 13, 2015|date=October 20, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702022139/http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-sophies-choice-1982|archive-date=July 2, 2015}}<br />- {{cite web|title=Picks and Pans Review: Sophie's Choice|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20084111,00.html|work=[[People (magazine)|People]]|access-date=May 13, 2015|date=January 24, 1983|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093757/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20084111,00.html|archive-date=May 18, 2015}}</ref> [[William Styron]] wrote the novel with [[Ursula Andress]] in mind for the role of Sophie, but Streep was determined to get the role.{{sfn|Lloyd|Robinson|1988|p=452}} Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, finding it extremely painful and emotionally exhausting.<ref>{{cite news |title=What Makes Meryl Magic |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924815-8,00.html |access-date=June 15, 2009 |date=September 7, 1981 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |first=John |last=Skow |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904040813/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924815-8,00.html |archive-date=September 4, 2009 }}</ref> That scene, in which Streep is ordered by an [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] guard at [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] to choose which of her two children would be gassed and which would proceed to the labor camp, is her most famous scene, according to [[Emma Brockes]] of ''The Guardian'' who wrote in 2006: "It's classic Streep, the kind of scene that makes your scalp tighten, but defter in a way is her handling of smaller, harder-to-grasp emotions".<ref name="Brockes06"/> 

Among several acting awards, Streep won the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]] for her performance,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/055-3/|title=Meryl Streep Academy Awards Acceptance Speech|publisher=[[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]]|access-date=January 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150227020555/http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/link/055-3|archive-date=February 27, 2015}}</ref> and her characterization was voted the third greatest movie performance of all time by ''[[Premiere (magazine)|Premiere]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/forum/printable.asp?m=371934|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418200137/http://www.empireonline.com/forum/printable.asp?m=371934|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 18, 2015|title=Premiere Magazine's Top 100 Greatest Performances|work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=March 20, 2006|access-date=July 2, 2015}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] said of her delivery, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine".{{Sfn|Ebert|2010|p=222}} [[Pauline Kael]], on the contrary, called the film an "infuriatingly bad movie", and thought that Streep "decorporealizes" herself, which she believed explained why her movie heroines "don't seem to be full characters, and why there are no incidental joys to be had from watching her".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|pp=62, 53}}

In 1983, Streep played her first non-fictional character, the [[nuclear whistleblowers|nuclear whistleblower]] and labor union activist [[Karen Silkwood]], who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the [[Kerr-McGee]] [[plutonium]] plant, in [[Mike Nichols]]' biographical film ''[[Silkwood]]''. Streep felt a personal connection to Silkwood,{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=69}} and in preparation, she met with people close to the woman, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of her personality.{{sfn|Ebert|Bordwell|2008|p=64}} She said, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her ... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside".{{Sfn|Ebert|Bordwell|2008|p=64}} Jack Kroll of ''[[Newsweek]]'' considered Streep's characterization to have been "brilliant", while Silkwood's boyfriend Drew Stephens expressed approval in that Streep had played Karen as a human being rather than a myth, despite Karen's father Bill thinking that Streep and the film had dumbed his daughter down. Pauline Kael believed that Streep had been miscast.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=78}} 

Streep next played opposite [[Robert De Niro]] in the romance ''[[Falling in Love (1984 film)|Falling in Love]]'' (1984), which was poorly received, and portrayed a fighter for the [[French Resistance]] during [[World War II]] in the British drama ''[[Plenty (film)|Plenty]]'' (1985), adapted from the play by <!-- Not knighted until 1998. -->[[David Hare (playwright)|David Hare]]. For the latter, Roger Ebert wrote that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm ... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms."<ref>{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert|title='Plenty' review |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19850920/REVIEWS/509200303/1023 |date=November 19, 1982 |access-date=June 6, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616153759/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19850920%2FREVIEWS%2F509200303%2F1023 |archive-date=June 16, 2010 }}</ref> In 2008, [[Molly Haskell]] praised Streep's performance in ''Plenty'', believing it to be "one of Streep's most difficult and ambiguous" films and "most feminist" role.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=92}}

Longworth considers Streep's next release, ''[[Out of Africa (film)|Out of Africa]]'' (1985), to have established her as a Hollywood superstar. In the film, Streep starred as the Danish writer [[Karen Blixen]], opposite [[Robert Redford]]'s [[Denys Finch Hatton]]. Director [[Sydney Pollack]] was initially dubious about Streep in the role, as he did not think she was sexy enough, and had considered [[Jane Seymour (actress)|Jane Seymour]] for the part. Pollack recalls that Streep impressed him in a different way: "She was so direct, so honest, so without bullshit. There was no shielding between her and me."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=81}} Streep and Pollack often clashed during the 101-day shoot in Kenya, particularly over Blixen's voice. Streep had spent much time listening to tapes of Blixen, and began speaking in an old-fashioned and aristocratic fashion, which Pollack thought excessive.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=88}} A significant commercial success, the film won a Golden Globe for Best Picture.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.nme.com/news/bohemian-rhapsody-worst-reviewed-golden-globes-winner-since-80s-2429215 | title= 'Bohemian Rhapsody' is the worst-reviewed Golden Globes winner in 33 years| work=[[NME]] | date=January 10, 2019 | access-date=January 11, 2019 | first=John | last=Earls}}</ref> It also earned Streep another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and the film ultimately won Best Picture. Film critic [[Stanley Kauffmann]] praised her performance, writing "Meryl Streep is back in top form. This means her performance in ''Out of Africa'' is at the highest level of acting in film today."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=93}}

[[File:Meryl Streep (2071470089) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Streep in 1989]]

Longworth notes that the dramatic success of ''Out of Africa'' led to a backlash of critical opinion against Streep in the years that followed, especially as she was now demanding $4 million a picture. Unlike other stars at the time, such as [[Sylvester Stallone]] and [[Tom Cruise]], Streep "never seemed to play herself", and certain critics felt her technical finesse led people to literally see her acting.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=97}} Her next films did not appeal to a wide audience; she co-starred with [[Jack Nicholson]] in the dramas ''[[Heartburn (film)|Heartburn]]'' (1986) and ''[[Ironweed (film)|Ironweed]]'' (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the "Great Performances" telecast of the Phoenix Theater production of ''Secret Service'' (1977). In ''[[Evil Angels (film)|Evil Angels]]''{{Efn|The film was released outside Australia and New Zealand as ''A Cry in the Dark''.}} (1988), she played [[Lindy Chamberlain]], an Australian woman who had been convicted of the [[Death of Azaria Chamberlain|murder of her infant daughter]] despite claiming that the baby had been taken by a [[dingo]]. Filmed in Australia, Streep won 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."}}{{sfn|Eberwein|2010|p=217}} a [[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}} Streep has said of developing the Australian accent in the film: "I had to study a little bit for Australian because it's not dissimilar [to<!-- not "from" (UK usage) --> American], so it's like coming from Italian to Spanish. You get a little mixed up."<ref name="Brockes06"/> Vincent Canby of ''The New York Times'' referred to her performance as "another stunning performance", played with "the kind of virtuosity that seems to re-define the possibilities of screen acting".<ref>{{cite news|author=Canby, Vincent|author-link=Vincent Canby|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE1DF1039F932A25752C1A96E948260|title=A Cry in the Dark|work=The New York Times|date=November 11, 1988|access-date=July 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704073433/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE1DF1039F932A25752C1A96E948260|archive-date=July 4, 2015}}</ref>

In 1989, Streep lobbied to play the lead role in [[Oliver Stone]]'s adaption of the play ''Evita'', but two months before filming was due to commence, she dropped out, citing "exhaustion" initially, although it was later revealed that there was a dispute over her salary.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=99}} By the end of the decade, Streep actively looked to star in a comedy. She found the role in ''[[She-Devil (1989 film)|She-Devil]]'' (1989), a satire that parodied societal obsession with beauty and cosmetic surgery, in which she played a glamorous writer.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=106}} Though the film was not a success, [[Richard Corliss]] of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' wrote that Streep was the "one reason" to see it, and observed that it marked a departure from the dramatic roles she was known to play.<ref>{{cite news |last=Corliss |first=Richard |title=Warty Worm, "She-Devil" review |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959340,00.html |magazine=Time |date=December 11, 1989 |access-date=June 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906045113/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959340,00.html |archive-date=September 6, 2009 }}</ref> Reacting to her string of poorly received films, Streep said: "Audiences are shrinking; as the marketing strategy defines more and more narrowly who they want to reach males from 16 to 25 – it's become a chicken-and-egg syndrome. Which came first? First, they release all these summer movies, then do a demographic survey of who's going to see them."{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=99}}