Meryl Streep wins the Oscar for Best Actress
Meryl Streep has won the Oscar for Best Leading Actress, her third Academy Award in total and her second Oscar for Best Actress among 14 nominations in that category. (She also has three nominations for Supporting Actress, making her the most nominated actor in history.) It’s somewhat of an upset in the category, as many predictions had Viola Davis taking home the Oscar. Meryl won the BAFTA and Golden Globe this year, and given her storied history with the Academy it wasn’t a total surprise. It’s been 30 years since Meryl won her last Oscar for Best Actress for Sophie’s Choice, and the Academy must have thought she was due again. (Slate had a nice slideshow of all the times that Meryl’s been passed up in this category. She also won Best Supporting Actress in 1979 for Kramer vs. Kramer.) Meryl won this year for her transformative performance as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. You could tell that Meryl was surprised when her name got called, and she gave a speech that was both gracious, meaningful and funny as hell:
When they called my name I had this feeling I could hear half of America going “oh no, oh come on why her again?” you know? But whatever! First I’m going to thank Don, because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play ’em out with the music and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives you’ve given me. [Gets choked up, composes herself] Secondly, my other partner. 37 years ago, my first play in NY City I met the great hairstylist and makeup artist Roy Helland. We worked together pretty continuously… his first film with me was Sophie’s Choice and all the way up until tonight when he won for his wonderful work in the Iron Lady. 30 years later every single film in between.
First I want to thank Roy, because I really understand I’ll never be up here again. I really want to thank all my colleagues, all my friends. I look out here and I see my life before my eyes. My old friends, my new friends and really this is such a great honor, but the thing that counts the most with me are the friendships and the love and the sheer joy we have making movies together. My friends, thank you all of you departed and here for this inexplicably wonderful career. Thank you so much.
Congratulations to Meryl! She hasn’t quite beaten Katherine Hepburn’s record of four Academy Awards, but it’s only a matter of time.
