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STREEP!!! Hey boys and girls, we had the honour of being in the glorified presence of The World’s Greatest Living Actress™.  Meryl Streep gave us with a small word about her latest film, Julie & Julia, which features her amazing dead-on portrayal of Julia Child, the woman who changed American home cooking forever.  She brought along co-star Stanley Tucci – no slouch himself in the acting department - for colour commentary.

Dig this while I try to get in on the Streep Christmas charades game!

 

Julie & Julia

Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci

 

The Lady Miz Diva:  Can you talk about becoming involved with Julie and Julia and how you approached playing Julia Child?

Meryl Streep:  Well, I bet everybody could do their version of Julia Child, that voice is so familiar.  And then how do we know we’re doing her or we’re doing Dan Aykroyd’s version of her?  Everybody can sort of pull that “Bon Appétit!” out there.  When Nora {- writer/director Ephron} gave me the script, which was some time a year ago, I thought it was so, so beautifully written and I thought it was an opportunity to, not impersonate Julia Child, but to do a couple of things. One; for me, embodying her, or Julie Powell’s idea of her, which is really what I’m doing.  I’m doing an idealised version of her, but I’m also doing an idealised version of my mother, who had a similar joie de vivre, an undeniable sense of how to enjoy her life and everywhere that she walked into she made brighter.  I mean, she really was something.  And I have a good deal of my father in me, which is another kind of sensibility, but I really all my life wanted to be more like my mother.  This is my little homage to that spirit and that’s more what I was doing than Julia Child.

 

LMD: Julie & Julia features the passionate romance between Julia and Paul Child, who was supportive of his wife in a way we don’t see on film often…

Stanley Tucci:  Well, it’s pretend.

{All laugh}

 

LMD: Well, that answers half of my question.  Can you talk about what notes you both worked on off screen to make that romance convincing?

MS:  Well, Stan and I are often on opposite sides in a very famous charades game every Christmas. 

{Both laugh}

We’ve been at each other’s throats like married people for a really long time, many years.  And we knew each other in that way, so I just was sort of in love with him from afar anyway; I mean with the totality of the man, everything.  From Big Night to his acting and directing work - in every way – and so is everybody that knows him, so ….  It was just a real treat to work with him and it wasn’t a tough job to imagine being in love with him.

ST:  Well, we have to go now…

{Streep laughs}

We are in a hotel, thanks for coming!

Thank you, Meryl, for your kindness.  For me it was easy, you know?  Like probably most people in the world, I, too, have been in love with Meryl Streep for years and years and years, and we had done The Devil Wears Prada together, which was really fun and we knew each other a bit socially before that, so for me it was incredibly easy.  {To Streep} But you make it easy because you’re so comfortable.  I’m always a little nervous when I start shooting and I was very nervous to play your husband.

MS:  Were you nervous when we started?

ST:  I was so nervous. I was.

MS:  Really?

ST:  And you made me feel so comfortable, you did, so it was nice.

MS:  You know what Nora did, she did what she called a costume test, but it was really sort of introducing us to our world.  She took us up to the rooms which they built for the Paris apartment that she built in Queens, and let us walk around in our clothes.  You know, in isolation in your Winnebago, or whatever it is, you kind of have a hard time convincing yourself you are who you say you are.  When you walk into this world, the light comes in a certain way and there’s a little landscape of Paris – a photograph, but still – and here’s the man of your dreams.  It all sort of came together before we had to actually film. You know, that was a big day.

ST:  Yeah, I remember.  Those elements, I mean, those physical, actual elements really help a great deal.

 

 

~ The Lady Miz Diva

July 19th, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Photos

Exclusive photos by LMD

Film stills courtesy of Sony Pictures

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