Thursday
Jul072011
Clutch The Pearls! "The Iron Lady" Teases
Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 11:52AM 
What timing!
Oscar nominations are exactly 200 days away. Immediately after hearing that Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs now has a distributor, her ostensible "overdue" Best Actress competition -- that'd be Meryl Streep -- starts teasing us with this one minute teaser clip, the first from The Iron Lady.
We'll save the "Yes, No, Maybe So" for a full trailer. But you are immediately forgiven if every line reads as an Oscar tease as well.
You've got it in you to go the whole distance!"
Consider eyebrows raised, but why can't I shake the vocal / aural image of Streep as Julia Child on first glimpse of Streep as Margaret Thatcher? Is it just the Oscar proximity? (Can you?)
P.S. Oscar Prediction Pages updates have begun starting with Best Actress
tagged Best Actress, Meryl Streep, Oscars (11), The Iron Lady
Best Actress, Meryl Streep, Oscars (11), The Iron Lady
Reader Comments (52)
I always think this when I first see Streep-as-somebody: She looks faintly ridiculous, but the altered voice draws me in. I want to see this more than any recent biopic-y biopic I can think of.
I said it on twitter, and I'll say it here - all I'm thinking when I see this is Miranda RIchardson. But it's not a full trailer, so I suppose it's difficult to put it into context as an actual film. I'm just not certain this is going to land well.
I love how in her older age she's playing it a bit more fun and camp with her characters. All her recent roles have been showcases of "I am Meryl Streep and I do what I freaking want!". She played the evil nun in Doubt like she was a drama school beginner, played Julia Child like an SNL character and if she wants to do Maggie like a bucktoothed carrier of evil, then so be it. She will be absolutely brilliant in this.
I wonder if the funny tone is just a marketing thing or the movie indeed doesn't try to take itself too seriously because of the divisiveness of the central character.
And Meryl almost always (in the recent years) seems to me (in the trailers) as "maybe great maybe horrible".
She does look kinda genius in this clip, I have to say. It's just the tone than confuses me.
I think this is just a tease saying "LOOK IT'S MERYL AS THATCHER!"
I completely agree with Jose's assessment.
She really looks like she's been having a ball these recent years. She's freakin' MERYL STREEP, God damnit, she can do whatever she wants.
Like Cameron on Modern Family says, 'She could play Batman and be the right choice'.
I'm in the "this teaser looks awesome, but I'm still wary of the film in general" camp. Will always love Meryl though!
Meryl's back, bitches!
"That's the tone that we want to strike!"
It's the curly wig. I've watched the teaser a few times (and rewatched the Julie & Julia trailer as well) and the accents are pretty different. It's just the head tilt and the wig are throwing a whole bunch of people off.
I know what you all mean! I WORSHIP Meryl but this does look kinda scary and kinda fun and kinda outrageous, doesn't it? What fun! Setting up the first glimpse of Meryl like that in this teaser - how flattering makingit such a big reveal! I love the tone of this - like they know they have Meryl Streep and that people will come see her in yet another character part and that they're not gonna be shy about it flaunting it! I love that.
BUT - can anyone honestly believe that Meryl can beat Glenn this year? I mean Glenn has never won, her man role looks/sounds very baity (she won an Obie for it, for heaven's sakes) and everyone will just assume again that Meryl will give another award winning performance next year so let's give it to Glenn after all this time.
OH HELL!!!!
Looks to me as if Streep prepared for the role by studying Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. Everything about her in this clip -- the hair, the make-up, the phrasings, the facial expressions -- screams Faye-as-Joan.
I know I'm one of the few people in the world who is sick of Meryl Streep getting nominated every freaking time she acts in something (even though I think she's great, not every role she does is Oscar-worthy), but there's another reason why I think this won't be her year for a second Oscar. This film is directed by Phyllida Lloyd, who directed Meryl in the most ridiculous movie she's ever been in, so ridiculous she couldn't even save it (I'm talking about Mamma Mia! of course). Also, I would love for Glenn Close to win this, just to prove that there are actresses of Meryl's age-range who are just as worthy as she is (somebody give Sigourney Weaver an Oscar-bait role, or at least something that can match her Aliens or Working Girl). I'll still give The Iron Lady a chance, but having Phyllida Lloyd's name attached worries me that the film will be as ridiculously campy as that was.
Initial thoughts: Faye Dunaway. Mommy Dearest.
That's all...
She looks like Bette Midler
For as disciplined a performer as Streep is, her laziness in finding parts is what's kept her from Oscar number three. Of the Great Actresses, she probably has the worst taste in directors, and notoriously doesn't pursue parts so much as she just takes what comes her way. If she wants a project that will take her career to the next level, she should really get into producing and champion the right role. But if she keeps taking milquetoast caricature parts in average films, it's never gonna happen for her. The AMPAS has told her over and over again: "That's not good enough."
But people have always said that Meryl Streep is a great actress with surprisingly few great films to her credit. And she seems pretty content with that. But if she wants that third Oscar, it's going to take a great film, and not just a great performance, to get it.
But Hayden that is somewhat of a double-edged sword. If she was too prickly with her director choices, maybe she wouldn't have done THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, for example.
How would the world be without that outstanding character in our collective lives?
I also believe that for as big of a deal she is nowadays, history will not judge Meryl Streep's Second Prime kindly from an artistic point of view. A phenomenon, sure. But unlike someone like Ingrid Bergman, this is not a phase of Streep's career where people will look back and say she was doing the kind of work that warranted another statuette.
But I get what you're saying and I agree. I'd love to see her tackle a Haneke or a von Trier. Or AT LEAST stretching a bit and going for a Paul Thomas Anderson or a Noah Baumbach.
Ha - she does look like Bette Midler.
Weirdly enough, when she does that weird "cock her head to the side and slowly break into an exaggerated smile" bit toward the end, the first thing that came to mind was Mike Myers doing the same thing in The Love Guru (and, to be fair, in just about everything else too, but especially The Love Guru)
Like Richter Scale, the involvement of Phyllida "directing is pointing the camera over here, right?" Lloyd worries me. But Meryl looks like she could, if not save the movie from itself, at least be so far above it that it doesn't drag her down. I don't know. I'm reserving judgement for the full trailer.
Oh, and I totally agree with Hadyn re: Streep's recent career. It's not that different from what DeNiro has done in the past ten years, starring in frequently lousy but popular mainstream movies and building herself a nice nest egg in the process, critics be damned.
Everything about this movie is intriguing to me, but for all the wrong reasons. Something has seemed off from the beginning, but I have to say that I liked what I saw of Meryl's acting in this teaser. Claude and Bia hit the nail on the head with the Faye Dunaway comparisons, but that kinda makes me dig it even more. lol
Oh my, it looks like the Showgirls of biopics. :S
"Consider eyebrows raised, but why can't I shake the vocal / aural image of Streep as Julia Child on first glimpse of Streep as Margaret Thatcher? Is it just the Oscar proximity? (Can you?)"
SAMESIES! I called it "Julie & Julia Pt. 2: Let's time, let's do British" before I saw your comment. But obviously, I'm a "Yes." It's Meryl. No question.
Also, I'm with Jose- I'd love for this to be a campy biopic about a very un-campy person. That would be brilliant and fun.
Roark -- the difference being that critics keep praising Streep but it's not like they've let DeNiro build that nestegg in peace :)
I remember when I first heard about this, I was extremely annoyed with Meryl...like, really? Do something new.
No doubt she'll be nominated for another Oscar.
BUT...she's just always so intriguing lol. Cuz she like never disappoints, ya know? You can always count on her to give something interesting even if the film isn't that interesting.
But really...I still can't get over her awards shower for Julie & Julia. If ANYONE else had played that part in that mediocre film, no attention would've been paid to it, but because it's Meryl Streep, it's an AMAZING mimicry performance! and she's nominated for an Oscar.
It'll be interesting to see if Glenn can get back in the race....
*still praying for KiKi*...I heard from someone who saaw Melancholia that it was AMAZING, obviously not a movie for everyone, but they were amazed and at the end of the movie, the whole audience was left speechless.
I blame the blind devoted and the obscene enablers: all who you are responsible for why present day Meryl Streep is shadow of her former Sophie/Silkwood/Ironweed self.
I'm a fan of many actresses. Susan Sarandon being my number one. I would say she's like Pfeiffer to Nathan. Nick Davis stanning for Lange makes me love Lange. However, his stanning for Roberts and Streep undervalues everything else he has to say. I'm a defender of Bates but she's indefendable these days -- sucking the joy out of Midnight in Paris when she's not speaking French -- which doesn't come natural to her like Bradley Cooper!
Say all this to say I'm on Team Close.
Is this supposed to be satire or something? Like a beter version of "W"? That's not what I thought they would go for at all, but something more "serious" instead. I get that Meryl's at the point where she wants to have fun and do whatever the hell she wants, but I don't know. Something about that reveal was very off. But it's only a teaser, so who knows?
But I think I'm pretty much going to be Team Glenn this year. Meryl has "August: Osage Co." coming up next year. This really could be Close's last possible nod.
Streep is a slam dunk for a nomination even with a 1 minute teaser. Can't wait to see aClose teaser as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be Conan O'Brien pretending to be Red Buttons or WTF is that all about?
Usually I defended Lloyd especially after saw her stage work in Mary Stuart... But this looks intriguing. In a better or worse way I want to see this.
She's La Streep.If she was nominated for Music from the heart and Julie & Julia (Even she was close for winning without Bullock wave). Of course she can be nominated. This year is really excellent in this category. Now I want to see Albert nobbs teaser. Close-Mara-Streep for the Oscars!.
Roark - At least Streep has the critical acclaim and the box office success and she's not act like herself all the time... Now, De Niro is a joke of himself
"Julie & Julia 2: British Boogaloo"
I cannot tell enough ( as so many of you seem to ) from the trailer... she's in it what 10 seconds?? And I will say it again .. to me, it is harder to give a great performance in a mediocre movie ... as Streep has done ... or with a weak director ... as Streep has done.
So let's give her and the movie a chance...
As for Close I will have more to say once a trailer or such has come out for the public.
Sure it'd be great to see Streep in a female version of Daniel Day-Lewis's part in P.T. Anderson's masterpiece, but come on. She's 60+ years old and has been absolutely brilliant and canny about extending and remaking her career, knowing how to mix popular films with weightier performances in a way that puts someone like Natalie Portman to shame. It's not simply inertia that has made her, in many ways, the ONLY actress of her generation who gets any parts at all. And I happen to think she gave one of her best performances in her last art-house movie, Spike Jonze's "Adaptation." I wish she would do more, but as an armchair observer, I have to admit she probably knows more about movies, her career, Hollywood, and acting than I do.
I think Meryl needs to do a full on foreign language performance. Isn't she fluentish in French or something? The French really seem to know how to use "older" actresses and the cameras love to linger on their faces. Surely one of the Isabelles or Kristin S.T. can give up a role to Meryl, no?
^ Why would they give up a role to someone who should be giving up some of hers? Lol. Well...I take that back...I just think August Osage County should've gone to someone else.
I love Meryl Streep and I think she is a great actress, but, come on, her career has been a flop. How can anyone make a second movie with the same director of Mamma Mia?
Streep is powerful, she has all the parts she wants, so, why not choose the right projects? Challenge yourself, damn. Do we really need another accent, another mimicry performance?
I haven't even seen the full trailer and I'm already annoyed. If I could I'd campaign against Streep this season.
(I love her, she moved me to tears a lot of times, but this project is a no-no)
I love Meryl Streep and I think she is a great actress, but, come on, her career has been a flop. How can anyone make a second movie with the same director of Mamma Mia?
Streep is powerful, she has all the parts she wants, so, why not choose the right projects? Challenge yourself, damn. Do we really need another accent, another mimicry performance?
I haven't even seen the full trailer and I'm already annoyed. If I could I'd campaign against Streep this season.
(I love her, she moved me to tears a lot of times, but this project is a no-no)
Okay...she could make better choices, but calling her career a flop is obviously a stretch...
@cal roth - Maybe because at this point in her career she doesn't really need to prove herself. And while Mamma Mia was a blight in cinema, it made A LOT of money overseas so it wasn't exactly a career-ending mistake for her and she looked liked she had an absolute blast (as did a lot of people her age group who saw that film).
Most of the comments i this thread are pretty arrogant. We have a 1 minute teaser trailer and people are judging an entire movie and an entire performance. Not only that, people are judging the last 10 years of Meryl Streep's career (Angels in America, The Hours, Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt). I'd put the movie choices and performances of Meryl Streep in the last 10 years up against any other actor or actress and Meryl Streep will come out on top every single time. I won't even mention the 20 years before the last 10 years.
Give the movie and Streep a fu__ing break already. Wait until you see the film before declaring Mommie Dearest for cripesake.
And for people to declare themselves in the Glenn Close camp already, without having seen even a teaser or trailer for that movie yet, well, how ignorant is that?
My first thought: "What...is that the Clint Mansell score to Moon? WHAT?!?" That last shot got me excited. Also, she's not wearing pearls...but talking about how she wears pearls? Or are they earrings that I'm missing?
WHATEVER. I am always excited for MERYL MERYL MERYL
If I were strapped in a chair Clockwork Orange-style, I would find some way to stab my eyeballs out before I would ever watch "Mamma Mia," but the film was a popular success, and it introduced new audiences to Meryl, which was the point I was trying to make about the sordid business of having a career in today's Hollywood. I don't think any actress, not Meryl, not someone like Julia Roberts, has as much clout as we think they do. Nowadays it's either Fresh Meat du Jour or Green Screen Replacement Body. (Even someone like Michelle Williams, who has made mostly independent movies, will soon have to find some sort of mainstream hit or her ability to make any movie at all will fade; see Nicole Kidman's career--"Rabbit Hole," I'm afraid, is probably only a slight uptick in a downward slope.)
And I kind of like the fact that Meryl knows her true gift lies in acting, not directing or producing. Little good that's done for Barbra Streisand or Jodie Foster.
Having seen "Mary Stuart" onstage, I'm going to cut Phyllida Lloyd some slack. She clearly has a gift as a director...I'll give her another shot at a movie and hope she can translate it well this time.
I can't tell if this is supposed to be "Nixon" or "W." She's very decisive, like Bush or Reagan, for that matter; you LOVE her or you HATE her. It'd be interesting to see it taken in a more satiric tone.
With "August: Osage County" up next year, I'd be surprised if they give her a statue this year. I think it'd be pretty easy to put money on Glenn.
brandz..... I am totally in your camp!
Kristen Wiig has competition for that Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Golden Globe, that's for sure!
I'm gonna need to definately see more before I can give an honest opinion of Ms Streep's performance in this flick but I am still intrigued . . .
Only Meryl Streep could manage to stuff 27 different shades of grotesque actressy self-satisfaction in a single line reading.
I think Robin Williams would make a more convincing Thatcher.
Oh I'm on Team Glenn too! Who the hell are you to tell me otherwise? We want to see our favorites acknowledged. It's no different than making blind predictions for our favorite sports teams or the like preseason before they play an actual game. Yes, things will certainly change when we see trailers, get a critical reception to "Albert Nobbs," box office, etc. But this is the fun part where we can root for our favorites before the season really gets underway. There's nothing wrong with that.
And this Meryl clip was some pure camp. Which she'll be nominated for regardless. I have NO problems whatsoever with giving Glenn Close some love sight unseen. She'll need ALL the help she can get against the Meryl express. And it's not like the woman won't have another shot at this in 2012 with "August: Osage County,"