Washington, U.S.A. — In an exclusive interview with AARP The Magazine, Hollywood legends Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones discuss the often taboo subject of mid-life sexuality. It’s the theme or their new movie, the highly anticipated ‘ Hope Springs,’ which focuses on a couple embarking on an entertaining yet poignant adventure to regain their sexual passion. The indomitable icons speak about their upcoming project, finally learning to live for the moment and why “nobody can tell [them] anything.”

The following are excerpts from the upcoming AARP The Magazine cover story featuring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, available in homes today and online at www.aarp.org/magazine.

On being “bored” in a relationship:

Streep: “If you’re bored with somebody, it’s because you’re bored with yourself. If you have a problem with somebody, often it’s something in yourself.”

Jones: “I always told my children when they whined….Only the boring are bored.”

On finding passion at any age:

Streep: “I find the older I get, the more intense my appetite for living and for appreciating life gets…You realize you’ve got just seconds.”

Jones: “I don’t do anything that is not fun. I just don’t do it. I’m a hedonist.”

On making marriage work:

Streep: “You live through all sorts of stuff when you’re in a long marriage: real highs and lows, and things that strain—and solidify—your relationship.”

On their fellow sexegenarians:

Streep: “I don’t think it’s unusual for my friends and people my age [to feel the way I do]. I only see bored 20-year-olds. I don’t see any bored 60-year-olds.”

On what drew them to ‘Hope Springs’:

Streep: “I like things that seem like they have a problem…Built into it was something really funny but lodged in something very real.”

Jones: “At long last, I had a chance to work with Meryl, so there was no question in my mind that I wanted to do it.”

On their prolific careers:

Streep: “I think there’s not a sell-by date on actors…But you also understand what a crapshoot it is and how serendipity plays a huge part. It’s not a piece of cake by any means.”

Jones: “I’ve been lucky and happy. I’ve made some bad movies. And I really enjoyed it!”

On passing the acting torch to their children:

Streep: “I’m delighted that we can share some things and that I have some experience that can be of comfort to her.”

Jones: “It makes you feel good when your kids choose to do the thing that you do even as much as you come home and complain about it.”

On endlessly pursuing their passions:

Streep: “I like everything. There’s just not anything I don’t like to do. That’s the problem. It means I’m very distractible.”

Jones: “I like being a director, and I’m never going to stop being an actor.”

The complete interview can be found online now at www.aarp.org/magazine.

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At last, one of the most respected contemporary actresses in Hollywood won the golden statue last night in what turned out to be one of the best Academy Award shows of the new millennium. Surprise was written all over the 62-year-old actress’ face as her name was announced by last year’s Leading Man, Colin Firth.

credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Meryl Streep was awestruck but composed as she approached the stage and gracefully accepted the statue. In her speech, she reminisced about her long career which includes 17 Oscar nominations to date — making her the most nominated actor in the Award’s history. Her last win was almost 20 years ago so this year was a welcome release of appreciation for the revered actress.

Backstage, the eager Oscar press corps were ready to quiz the newly-made third-time winner.

Q. I wanted to ask you about what you said on stage because you said that it would probably be your last time there winning an Oscar?

A. Yes, I’m pushing the tolerance.

Q. Maybe you don’t want to give Katharine Hepburn a run for her money?

A. Did she have more?

Q. Four.

A. Oh, well, okay.

Q. No, but really, how did you feel winning this third award, and why did you think

A. Oh, I was thrilled. I thought I was so old and jaded, but they call your name, and you just go into sort of a, I don’t know, a white light. And it was just thrilling. It was like I was a kid again. I mean, it was I was a kid when I won this, like, 30 years ago. Two of the nominees were not even conceived. So, you know, it was great. And it was doubly wonderful because my long time collaborative colleague, Roy Helland, makeup man, hairdresser, he won too, and he won for not an outside he won with his colleague Mark Coulier, who is a great British prosthetics designer, but he won not for some, you know, monster making, but for making a human being, and it’s very unusual in that branch that they give it to somebody who’s just trying to transform people. And so I was really, really proud for him.

Q. In researching your role, did you have a chance to meet Margaret Thatcher?

A. No, I haven’t. Really, she has retired from public life almost entirely now in the last two years. So, no, I didn’t. But I studied her, and I studied, you know, there’s so much archival footage. And then the challenge was to imagine her present life, and that was completely an active imagination on Abi Morgan, the writer’s part, and my part, but there was a lot of freedom in that, but also responsibility to a real person and to history. So, it was it was really very, very satisfying as an actor, as an artist, to make a film that starts out about

Q. We love you there, and I’ve been following your career, too, but I am learning that you have very good relationship with a lot of staff member as well as your family. What is the trick of sustaining such a deep, good relationship in such a busy life?

A. You can ask every working woman that question and get a million different answers because it’s it’s the juggle and the challenge that we have, but honestly, in my life, because it’s in the arts, I don’t go to work every day. So my day has been more flexible than other working women. Even when I was young and broke, I could I was only working ever for four months at a time, and I was unemployed. So my children never knew when I was going to be home. It was very valuable. But, you know, I think it’s a struggle. And it’s an ongoing struggle. Women have to do it all, you know. And so, the more flexible work becomes, the more engaged the dads become, the better.

Q. And my question is, you won for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ for the very first time, and then ‘Sophie’s Choice’, and now for ‘Iron lady’. Which one of those was this is impossible question to answer, I guess, but talk about, you know, those different experiences in getting up there and accepting, you know, three times now, what was that you know, what was it like the first time around and the second time around and is this better in some way?

A. I read a poem yesterday, and it had nothing to do with this but it said, one of the lines jumped out and it said, “It is strange to be here once as it is to return.” So, that’s true. It is strange, the whole thing is strange. I mean, if you’re a human being, it’s weird. If you are not, I don’t know. Probably fun.

Q. You had mentioned that it has been a long time since the last time you won. Were you worried that it never was going to happen again?

A. No. I have I mean, I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of in my life. And no. I mean, I think there’s room for other people. Frankly, I understand Streep fatigue. And it shocks me, it shocked me that it didn’t override this tonight. So, I was really, really happy but I don’t take anything for granted, that’s for sure.

Credit: Matt Brown / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q. Congratulations. In your very moving speech this evening, you mentioned jokingly we might all be sick of you in the future. I hope that doesn’t happen, but it seems like you have the beginning of a second project in life with The Women’s Museum. Would you talk a little bit about that?

A. Thank you for asking about that. There is no national women’s history museum, but there is a lot of history that is not written about the contributions of women in our country and around the world. And I think it would be really, really inspiring for people all around the world to have this fantastic center where you can learn the stuff that hasn’t been written about women, because for many, many centuries, history was not interested in us. And yet, and our history is invisible and I think it would be great for boys and girls to go to a place where they could learn about the contributions of their foremothers as well as their forefathers.

Q. Expounding on that idea, with young girls today, young women watching the Oscars, what advice would you give to them if they are thinking about going into filmmaking or acting?

A. Or anything.

Q. Or anything?

A. Or anything. Never give up. Don’t up, don’t give up. I mean, many girls around the world live in circumstances that are unimaginably difficult. And it’s not, you know, show business is a golf game compared to the way most kids grow up in the world. But I would say never give up. On March 8, 9, and 10, Tina Brown is hosting something called Women in the World in New York, a 3 day symposium bringing activists around the world on behalf of issues concerning women and girls, and it’s a great, great thing. Hope you will write about it and go see it. And thank you very much.

Q. Have you paid tribute to the great work of Roy and Mark on your makeup? Can you describe that moment when you first looked in the mirror and saw the face of Margaret Thatcher looking back at you?

A. Well, by the time we had achieved the right amount of less, and less, and less, I had become acclimated to not looking at Margaret Thatcher in the mirror and thought it was me, and that was important to me that I wasn’t looking at rubber, that I was looking at me. You know, I sort, of at that point in the process of creating a character, I’d already sort of morphed in a way, in my head, and in my heart, with her, and her concerns and her interests, her zeal, her mission, her sense of rightness, and all of that. But honestly, when we first had the old age makeup on, I saw my dad. You know. I looked so much like my dad. Maybe my dad looked like Margaret Thatcher, I don’t know. So, is that the end?

Q. That is the end.

A. Okay. Thank you very much.

Image Courtesy of  Bryan Crowe / ©A.M.P.A.S. (Top Image)

The article Meryl Streep Wins Best Actress for ‘The Iron Lady’ appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

With her nomination for The Iron Lady, Meryl Streep extended her record for having the most Academy Award nominations by any single actor. Her portrayal of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher earned her a place on the shortlist for the 17th time. However, Streep has won an Oscar on only two occasions, and her last victory took place 30 years ago at the 55th Academy Awards, when she was named Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice.

In fact, out of 79 major industry nominations (14 from BAFTA, 3 from the Emmys, 26 from the Hollywood Foreign Press, 5 from the Grammys, 13 from the Screen Actors Guild, 1 from the Tonys, and the aforementioned 17 from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences), Streep has managed to take home just 16 of those titles since her first Tony nomination in 1976. Considering her status as “the most critically acclaimed actress of the modern era,” this tally seems somewhat surprising.

Yet, 2012 could prove to be the year that Streep breaks her three-decade run of Oscar losses. Already this awards season, she has been the recipient of a Golden Globe, the Berlin International Film Festival’s Homage and Honorary Golden Bear, and – most notably – her first BAFTA in 31 years.

Streep’s one significant loss so far for The Iron Lady has been at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which took place on January 29 and saw her lose to Viola Davis, who won for The Help. Davis is likely to be Streep’s main competitor at the Academy Awards, in a category which also includes Glenn Close, Rooney Mara, and Michelle Williams, who cannot be counted out after her win for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at this year’s Golden Globes.

Still, it appears all but certain that the Academy Award’s Best Actress title will be a two-horse race between Davis and Streep. Counting in Streep’s favour is the fact that she both defeated Davis at the BAFTAs and broke her own 31-year gap between BAFTA wins, last winning in 1981 for The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

Counting against Streep is the fact that she was awarded by British voters for her role as a well-known British figure in a film shot entirely in Britain. The same acknowledgement by American voters cannot be counted upon after The Iron Lady failed to be nominated at the Academy Awards for any other category except Best Makeup.

The Help, meanwhile, is in the running for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress, with two nominations alone in the latter category. Also counting against Streep’s favour is the fact that the Screen Actors Guild Award, which Davis won, has proven to be the most indicative of who will be triumphant at the Academy Awards.

Taking the last decade as an example, here are a list of women who won the Screen Actors Guild Award and went on to win the Academy Award that same year:

• Natalie Portman (2010).
• Sandra Bullock (2009).
• Helen Mirren (2006).
• Reese Witherspoon (2005).
• Hilary Swank (2004).
• Charlize Theron (2003).

Streep, therefore, cannot count out Davis just yet, but she is certainly going into this year’s Oscar race with her strongest case for success in many years.

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