Alex Bailey
Will Meryl Streep’s decision to star in the Margaret Thatcher biopic pay off with a long-awaited Oscar?
One of Hollywood’s unwritten rules is that biopics often equal Oscar gold. And unless the prolific American actress has suppressed a deep-rooted admiration for Britain’s former, and first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the winning of awards may be on Streep’s mind seeing that she hasn’t tasted Oscar glory since Sophie’s Choice nearly 30 years ago.
(More on TIME.com: See pictures of Meryl Streep)
The first still of The Iron Lady has been released and Streep certainly looks the part. She teams up again with Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd in this tale of, “a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman.” Or in layman’s terms, the movie looks at Thatcher’s life and covers political times, specifically the period building up to the Falklands War in 1982 (which ironically was when Sophie’s Choice was released).
As for Streep, she had the obligatory PR spiel down perfectly. “The prospect of exploring the swathe cut through history by this remarkable woman is a daunting and exciting challenge,” she said. “I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervor and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses — I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own!” Rounding out the cast are the likes of Jim Broadbent as husband Denis Thatcher, and Richard E Grant playing fellow Conservative politician Michael Heseltine.
(More on TIME.com: See Margaret Thatcher in TIME’s 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century)
Off-screen controversy has already kicked in as the movie was the last to have received funding from the U.K. Film Council, which was axed by the current Conservative government last year (conspiracy theorists claim the film was given funding to annoy the Tory regime). And Thatcher’s family aren’t exactly thrilled either, as it’s rumored that the plot will also focus on Thatcher’s apparent regrets as she reassesses her career, all the while dealing with dementia.
Film fans might take a different view entirely: because if all the British actors are taking on the various super hero roles right now, it’s surely only fair for an American to tackle Britain’s Iron Lady. (via The Guardian)