Hot take coming in. I've found her overrated. She straddles the over acting line to me. She just cherry picks award bait roles/movies. I've never once said man I have to see that Meryl Strep movie/role. I find her smug and that stuff comes off on screen to me. I've admittedly haven't seen a ton of her work because the stuff I have seen is uninteresting. I think Cate Blanchett is way better. What do I know though? Next to nothing. Although I am planning on watching Kramar vs Kramar when I get some time here soon, never seen it. I am hoping it is Cosmo vs Cosmo ;-)
Ah, here it is (the thread, I mean).
Ok, well, all I can do is wholeheartedly, but respectfully, disagree.
I think she's the opposite of the over-actor, she is the one who can entirely inhabit a role to the degree that even though she's a superstar I can forget it's her. Her portrayal of Julia Child, a person I grew up watching every day because of my mother, was startling to me. It wasn't mimicry it was like she
was Julia Child, back from the grave to be in this movie.
And that's just one of maybe 30 times I've seen her and thought, "Well, I wonder who the
second-best actor in the world is?"
And I am the opposite of you in that I will watch any movie with her in it based on the strength of her being in it alone. I don't know about smug but I know she was treated very badly at the beginning of her career, called "ugly" and told she could never make it with a face like hers while male actors she knew and worked with who were not handsome were becoming the superstars of their time. She fought through all of that because she was simply the best there is and she rode that through all the prejudices against her to become the grand dame of acting. Because she is simply better than everyone else.
I agree with you on one thing, I think of Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton as being the obvious heirs to her throne but they can't have it while she's still working because if she even clears her throat it reminds everyone that she's still the best.