Meryl Streep Opens up About the Three Movies She Regrets Most

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Meryl Streep‘s incredible acting career almost ended before it began. Her first film role, a small part in the 1977 movie Julia, featured stars like Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave, but the experience was surprisingly discouraging. Much of her work was cut from the final film, and she was upset with how her appearance and lines were altered. She remembers having a bad wig and feeling frustrated that dialogue from one scene with Jane Fonda was awkwardly pasted into another. This manipulation left her feeling so disappointed that she seriously considered quitting acting, thinking she’d made a huge mistake and hating the film industry.

By the early 1980s, Meryl Streep was working on bigger, more important films, but she was still incredibly self-critical. During the filming of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, she found it challenging to play a character who was also an actress in a historical story.

Even though she won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for that performance, she later told Graham Norton she didn’t feel fully immersed in the role. Streep felt disconnected from the character and the story, and she always wished she could revisit and improve her work.

She explained that it’s natural to want to do better after a project is finished, demonstrating that even someone who has won three Academy Awards experiences professional regret. This drive for perfection ultimately influenced her approach when she took on the role of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada.

Meryl Streep wanted to truly embody the cold and powerful nature of her fashion editor character, so she tried Method acting for the first and only time in her career. She stayed in character constantly, even off-camera, and purposefully separated herself from her co-stars to project authority.

While this approach worked well for the film, it made Streep feel incredibly lonely and unhappy. She later described the experience as awful, admitting she was miserable alone in her trailer while hearing the rest of the cast enjoying themselves.

Streep learned that portraying a boss came with a personal cost and famously vowed to never use Method acting again. She’s since relied on her usual acting techniques, which clearly haven’t affected her success as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

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2026-02-11 19:45