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Meryl Streep’s Rocky Rise To Fame

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:50 PST, Apr 12, 2016

Meryl Streep has made her way to the top by sheer determination and hard work. The journey to the top was no easy feat and her positive attitude has helped the Sophie’s Choice actress to overcome obstacles by seeing the brighter side of life.

According to Woman’s Day, Meryl Streep applied to law school after graduation but overslept the morning of her interview. She took this as a sign that she was destined to do something else in life. She worked as a waitress and a typist to support herself while at the Yale School of Drama. She almost quit after her first film, however, she took up the challenge and went on to win three Academy Awards in her glorious career.

Part of the secret of her success is the greats lengths she goes to in order to give her best performance in every role. In fact, she learned to play the violin for her role in Music of the Heart. Meryl Streep practiced the violin for six hours a day for eight weeks in order to perfect her portrayal of an inner-city music teacher in the movie.

Now, Billboard reports that Meryl Streep is set to deliver another brilliant performance in her new movie Florence Foster Jenkins.

Meryl Streep plays the role of a New York heiress and an amateur opera singer with big dreams. The movie is based on the true story of a woman by the same name, who is indeed a New York heiress who is helped by her husband to achieve her dream. The movie may show Meryl Streep’s on-screen husband, played by Hugh Grant, helping her despite being aware of her lack of talent; however, in reality, her real-life husband, Don Gummer, realized Meryl Streep’s tremendous potential early on and has provided motivation at times when she needed it most. In fact, the two met and fell in love during one of the most difficult phases in Meryl Streep’s life.

Meryl Streep’s life was devastated when her boyfriend, John Cazale, died of cancer in 1978. John Cazale was a talented actor who starred in five best picture-nominated films in just six years. However, their romance was short-lived as John Cazale was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer only months after she moved into his apartment.

Both John and Meryl were cast in The Deer Hunter and it was during their work on the film that John’s health worsened. Meryl Streep showed tremendous courage and devotion by taking care of John Cazale until the end.

People reported that after John Cazale’s death, Meryl Streep was evicted from John’s apartment. And it was during these troublesome times that she met Don Gummer, a sculptor, who was introduced to her by her brother.

Don Gummer allowed Meryl Streep to stay in his apartment, and Meryl Streep took up the offer. As time went on, she found that his helpful and kind nature brought them closer together and they started a relationship.

Unfortunately, Meryl Streep’s troublesome days were far from over. Just a few months after John Cazale’s death, she was offered a role working alongside Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer. Vanity Fair reports that the filming experience was very difficult for Meryl Streep who was still grieving her boyfriend, and knew that she had not fully dealt with John Cazale’s death when the role was offered. To make matters worse, at the time she had not fully transitioned from a theater actress to a movie actress.

In Her Again: Becoming Meryl Streep, an unauthorized biography of Meryl Streep, author Michael Schulman claims that Dustin Hoffman used methodical acting techniques to “assist” Meryl Streep to deliver an emotional performance. Dustin Hoffman’s tactics were criticized as these involved stirring up Meryl’s emotions by invoking the memories of her late boyfriend during filming. Ultimately, the movie released in 1979 and Meryl Streep received accolades by winning an Academy Award in the Best Supporting actress category.

Things have improved considerably for Meryl Streep since those trying early days in her career. Her marriage to Don Gummer has been a steady one, and they have been happily married for 38 years and have four children together.

In 2012, Meryl Streep showed her appreciation for Don Gummer when she accepted the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in The Iron Lady.

[Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images]

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