"Listening is everything, and it's where you learn everything."
Meryl Streep (born 22nd June, 1949) is a highly awarded American who is considered to be one of the best film actors of her time.
As a child, she loved showing off in front of the camera in home videos.
She performed in many school plays, and was always good at singing. When she was 12, Meryl started taking opera lessons, but she stopped after four years because she didn't feel like she really understood what she was singing. She still performed in many school plays.
Meryl decided to take acting seriously while she was at college, and studied drama. Working as a waitress and typist while also studying and doing plays was hard, and she almost switched to studying law. However, she persisted and became the very successful actor she is today.
Balance between work and her life is important to Meryl.
"You have to get your life right before you can get your art going," she once said. "At least, for me, the things that matter most are peripheral to my awards or parts I've played. My life is what matters."
When asked about acting, these were some of her responses ...
Transcript (what is said in the video, plus some extras)
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Meryl: I’ve thought a lot about the power of empathy in my work. It’s the current that connects me and my actual pulse to a fictional character in a made up story. It allows me to feel pretend feelings and sorrows, and imagined pain. Empathy is the engine that powers all the best in us. It is what civilizes us. It is what connects us. Empathy is at the heart of the actor’s art, or as Leonard Cohen says, “Pay attention to the cracks, ‘cos that’s where the light gets in.” Interviewer: You've said that when you're trying to find a character you look for what comes out of the eyes. Meryl: I think I meant that in connection to working ... I don't feel like I exist until I'm with someone ... else. Interviewer: How important is listening? Meryl: It's everything and it's where you learn everything. And I always think of acting ... I mean, when I was applying to law school and thinking, well, 'acting is a stupid way to make a living and it doesn't do anything in the world', but I think it does. I think there's a great worth in it, and the worth is in listening to people who maybe don't even exist, or who are voices in your past, and through you, come through the work, and you give them to other people. I think that giving voice to characters that have no other voice - that's the great worth of what we do. Because so much of acting is vanity ... so much ... I mean this feels so great, to come out here and sit here and have everybody clap. But the real thing that makes me feel so good is when I know I've said something for a soul. You know, I've presented a soul. Meryl: I just think that everybody has everything in them and you have everybody in you. And to directors I want to say, you know, ‘don’t just …’ - I hate those meetings where you walk in and you sit down. They just want to have a look at you. Well then, that’s all they’re going to get is a look at you, and a look at you is nothing. It’s nothing. You’ve got to imagine and see people’s work because people’s work is where you’ll find whether they can do this thing … can open you up to the hidden world of a character, to the stuff that is never explained but always layers your appreciation of the story. Because that’s why we’re here is to serve this entire story. |