Comment Party Fun: What will Meryl Streep's Oscar ballot look like?
Monday, February 4, 2019 at 10:11AM 
We're just 20 days away from Hollywood's High Holy Night and voting on who will win the Oscars begins in just 8 days. Since 20 is the number for the day we're thinking of Meryl, the only actor in history to have amassed 20+ acting nominations (she's at 21 and the number will presumably climb) and we're wondering who she'll be voting for. Care to make a conjecture in the comments? We know from her speeches at awards shows that she really does watch, value, and think about work by other actors (even shouting out high quality non-nominees which is pretty rare as awards season behavior goes - remember when she praised Adepero Oduye's stunning debut in the little seen LGBT drama Pariah?).
Let's get silly in the comments and make presumptious guesses. Oh come on, you know you want to! I'll make a guess on Best Actor and Best Actress after the jump to get you started...
Best Actor ☑️ I'd like to flatter my own opinion and say that Meryl will notice how deep Bradley Cooper digs emotionally in A Star is Born but if anyone overvalues "transformation," it's surely the queen of chameleons. She's a Bale in Vice voter.
Best Actress. ☑️ Common wisdom might say Glenn Close, a formidable Streep peer, but we know from Close's own words that they aren't actually close friends. Best guess: She's torn but she's voting for her former screen daughter Olivia Colman (The Iron Lady) who is, like Close, a world class actor that other actors totally admire. And Olivia Colman gave her a cupcake for Mother's Day once...
Reader Comments (34)
Her Doubt and Julie & Julia co-star Amy Adams for sure :)
Rami -- you're probably right but not for that, Meryl, not for that!
This is a fun conceit. I can't imagine Meryl having the time to see everything but, by all accounts (including her love of Pariah), she probably goes out of her way to see the really good stuff.
Picture: The Favourite... because she loves a good dance number
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos... because Meryl is probably angling to be in his next ensemble
Actress: Olivia Colman... because of Meryl's as-yet-purely-imaginary feud with Glenn
Actor: Willem Dafoe... because he's the underdog whose been kicking around for as long as she has
S. Actress: Regina King... because Meryl knows her way around a wig
S. Actor: Sam Elliott... see also: Dafoe, William
O. Screenplay: First Reformed... because good taste requires it
A. Screenplay: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs... because everyone loves the Coen Bros
Animated: Spiderverse... because duh
Foreign Language: Roma... because duh
That's it for now. :-)
Fun game! I’d bet Meryl is voting for Christopher Robin in VFX.
One can assume she will have voted for Viola in Widows, and now she has... such doubts.
Film: The Favouritebecause if its complex female roles or Roma, because of its deeply human tale about a woman. Those are big themes Meryl talks about.
Director: Spike Lee. She likes hard truths - I suspect she voted for him before.
Actress: Glenn. Even though they aren’t close, they’ve worked together and respect each other. I also think Meryl will appreciate that Glenn pushes herself with this performance (aka she isn’t devouring the scenery).
Actor: this was a year of transformations. I think she respects that, but I also imagine she loves seeing actors get lost in a character without all the stuff. She’ll go for Dafoe.
Supporting Actress: Regina. She plays a complex and loving mother, and does it in period garb with intensity and truth.
Supporting Actor: Sam Elliot. I don’t see her buying into anything related to greenbook.
She praised First Reformed in her interview with Colbert, so I agree with W.J. that she is voting for it in Original Screenplay and just maybe she voted for Hawke in Actor.
I think Streep will lean towards picking RBG for Best Documentary and Best Song.
Best Picture....Bohemian Rhapsody
cause she probably hasn't heard anything negative about Bryan Singer
as she never had heard anything negative about Harvey Weinstein
Picture: A Star Is Born
Director: Cooper (write in)
Actor: Cooper
Actress: Gaga
Supporting Actress: King (it's easier to pronounce than Wasikowska)
Supporting Actor: Elliott
Song: Diane Warren
Picture: The Favourite
Director : Yorgos Lanthimos
Actor : Christian Bale
Actress :Glenn Close
Supporting Actor : Sam Elliott
Supporting Actress : Amy Adams
Original Screenplay : Paul Schrader
A. Screenplay : Spike Lee
Song : Shallow
That' s all !
Love this game, I really do think she will have a "Sophie's Choice" decision between Glenn Close and Olivia Colman. But in the end, she knows how tough it is for older actresses to get good parts, so she will vote for Glenn as a "lifetime" Oscar. (She was very happy when Cher won, so seeing Glenn win will give her pleasure).
I haven't seen the film with William Defoe, but she loves singing so she might be more partial to Bradley Cooper than you guys think. So I'm putting her down for Cooper.
I think Richard E. Grant is her choice in supporting actor, because she really loves the British sense of humour, and she was disappointed former co-star Hugh Grant didn't get the nod.
Don't forget she did a Wes Anderson film so she's voting "Isle of Dogs" in animated.
Emily Blunt is practically her daughter so she's voting for Emily's song.
Finally she's throwing her vote to "The Favourite" for best original screenplay -Deborah Davies is co-author and she supports woman writers.
Roma for best picture, but Spike Lee for best director.
Best Supporting Actress (write in): Meryl Streep, Mary Poppins Returns
She will vote for Glenn Close because she has plaid her dues many times over.
And I think she will vote for Roma as BP because of its timeliness and its timelessness.
Meryl Streep will vote for herself in all the acting categories. Can’t play it too safe.
Black Panther for costume design. That's all.
Would she vote for a Lanthimos movie? She hates the word edgy and his filmography is wholly the embodiment of that word. Oddly enough I sort of want her to work with him because I believe he could extrapolate from her what Almodovar swears he can once he nails down an English language script.
KRIS01 --- lololol. Thank you.
Lady Edith -- i like your reasoning but i still htink she's a Colman voter.
Suzanne -- i didn't know this! How cool.
@/3rtful Adaptation was pretty edgy and she almost won for it.
She'll vote for Cooper in Actor, Close in Actress, Grant in Supporting Actor, and Stone in Supporting Actress.
It was a blink and miss article but Page Six reported that Meryl attended a private party for Roma hosted by Angelina Jolie, so she’s definitely voting Roma for BP (but The Favorite is definitely the next option). And as much as she loves Olivia, I think she’ll vote for Glenn, because even if they aren’t close they are still friends, and she, like many of us, agrees it’s finally time.
There's a Dublin_zoetrope meme in there somewhere.
I do this all the time, usually with Nicole Kidman. (And then for everyone in 2016 to imagine who voted for Huppert. Lol)
Streep votes...
Picture: ROMA
Director: Cuáron
Actress: Gaga
Actor: Dafoe
Supporting Actress: de Tavira
Supporting Actor: Ali
Original Screenplay: FIRST REFORMED
Adapted Screenplay: BLACKkKLANSMAN
She's totally voting for Glenn because she loves to feel good about herself.
Totally voting for Glenn Close. Let’s get that “never won narrative” out of the way just in case they are nominated for Oscar in the same category in the near future 😜
Nathaniel! I didn't know you interviewed Olivia Colman?! Must have been before I started reading this blog. Lucky you. One of my five favorite actresses.
Meryl is definitely picking Colman, Cooper, Adams, Grant. And Shopliifters.
This is a hard one, but I think she will go for Glenn over GaGa, since Meryl and Glenn share the same agent (Kevin Huvane).
For best actor, definitely Bradley Cooper. Meryl as not even watched Bohemian Rhapsody, and who can blame her?
Amy Adams (maybe, I believe she is still undecided) and Sam Elliott (since she loved A Star is Born, but she wants you to know that she also loved Richard E. Grant)
Best Picture; A Star is Born.
She'll be voting for The Favourite, Cuaron, Close, Malek, Adams, and Grant.
I think she'll vote for Glenn for 3 reasons:
1) She appreciates theater actors - Glenn & Meryl both started out in NY on stage and of course Glenn has won 3 tonys
2) Guilt - As contemporaries, Meryl has gotten many more juicy roles that Glenn probably could have played as well.
3) Respect - she gets what it takes to maintain longevity in the industry
That said, she could just think Olivia was far superior and just vote for her. Who wouldn't admire that part and performance?
LOL that MS won't watch Bohemian Rhapsody.
She knows Glenn has possibly Sunset Blv. and if she works semi regularly until early her 80's a minimum of one more nom left (Hey, it's fate, especially if she loses this year.), SO, Colman it is.
I'm with Peggy. She's a world-class hypocrite so she's voting for Glenn. She's probably wearing a sticker right now.
It would be so interesting to see the ballots of the old, old guard. For instance, Olivia De Havilland - She's been working since the 30s and has seen it all.
And contrary to the popular assumption, I think older people are much less conservative than given credit. Jane Fonda, Glenda Jackson .. Lee Grant - all very old and (I assume) are much more liberal voting than the younger PC voters.
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