Meryl Streep stands as the most respected actress of her generation. While the world celebrates her twenty-one Oscar nominations, her path to greatness involved several near-misses and surprising detours. For instance, she almost became a lawyer instead of an actress because of a single morning mistake. Furthermore, she once considered quitting the movie business entirely after her very first film. Prepare to meet the woman who mastered every accent in history.
Meryl Streep
She originally planned to become a lawyer. She applied to law school after she graduated from Vassar College. However, she overslept the morning of her entrance interview. She took this as a sign that the universe wanted her to do something else, so she pursued drama instead.
Meryl Streep almost quit acting after her first movie. She had a small part in the 1977 film Julia. During the edit, the director took words from one scene and put them in her mouth for another. She hated the experience so much that she told herself she would never make another movie.
She left her first Oscar on a bathroom floor. After she won Best Supporting Actress for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980, the excitement overwhelmed her. She went to the restroom during the governors’ ball and accidentally left the gold statue on the floor. Fortunately, she realized it and ran back to retrieve it.
Dustin Hoffman slapped her for real on her first day. To get an emotional reaction during Kramer vs. Kramer, Hoffman struck her across the face without warning. He also goaded her by whispering the name of her late partner, John Cazale, in her ear. Streep was furious but used the anger to fuel her performance.
She is a trained opera singer. She began taking formal voice lessons at age twelve. Although she chose acting, her musical training allowed her to perform her own songs in movies like Into the Woods and Mamma Mia! without needing a vocal double.
Meryl Streep donated her entire salary from The Iron Lady. She received $1 million to play Margaret Thatcher. Instead of keeping the money, she donated every cent to the National Women’s History Museum. She believes that women’s history remains underrepresented and needs a permanent home in Washington, D.C.
She only kept one item from Miranda Priestly’s wardrobe. The Devil Wears Prada had a costume budget of over $1 million. Despite the high-end designer clothes, Streep only kept the character’s sunglasses. Interestingly, she wore the same sunglasses again years later in Mamma Mia!
She holds the record for the most Oscar nominations in history. With 21 nominations, she sits far ahead of any other actor or actress. Specifically, seventeen of these were for Best Actress and four were for Best Supporting Actress.
She learned the violin by practicing six hours a day. For the film Music of the Heart, she portrayed a real-life music teacher. She refused to fake the hand movements. Therefore, she practiced for eight weeks straight until she could actually play the instrument.
She was a high school cheerleader and homecoming queen. Long before she became a serious dramatic actress, she was the “popular girl” at Bernards High School in New Jersey. She recently admitted that she viewed that role as her first real acting job because she had to “play” a perfect student.
Meryl Streep has only been turned down for four roles in her life. Directors almost always want her for their projects. However, she famously missed out on parts in American Gigolo, Sweet Dreams, The Remains of the Day, and Elizabeth.
She gained 20 pounds to play a middle-aged housewife. For The Bridges of Madison County, she wanted to look like a realistic woman of that era. She deliberately changed her diet to add weight, which gave her character the soft, lived-in appearance she felt was necessary for the romance.
She bought a house based on a map of nuclear plants. After she starred in Silkwood, she became deeply concerned about nuclear safety. She and her husband actually drew 90-mile circles around nuclear facilities on a map. They specifically bought a home in Connecticut that sat outside every single circle.
She wrote her own courtroom speech in Kramer vs. Kramer. She felt the original script made her character seem too cold and “evil.” She convinced the director to let her rewrite the dialogue to explain why a mother would leave her child. Consequently, the new speech made the movie much more balanced and emotional.
Finally, she suffers from “Stage Fright” every time she starts a movie. Despite her decades of success, she claims that she feels like a fraud during the first week of every production. She worries that she has forgotten how to act and that the director will finally fire her for being untalented.
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Leonardo DiCaprio stands as one of the most respected actors in cinematic history. He successfully transitioned from a teen heartthrob to a serious leading man. You surely remember him from Titanic, but his career goes much deeper. He is a passionate environmentalist who fights to save our planet. However, his path to the Oscar was incredibly long and difficult. Let’s examine the fascinating details of his journey.
Leonardo DiCaprio
His pregnant mother decided to name him Leonardo DiCaprio while visiting a museum in Italy. He kicked in her womb for the very first time right as she looked at a Da Vinci painting.
A great white shark almost attacked Leonardo DiCaprio while he was diving in South Africa. A tuna fish fell on top of the cage, which attracted the shark inside the protective bars.
He speaks fluent German because his mother was born in Germany and raised him bilingually. Therefore, he often visits his grandmother in Oer-Erkenschwick and speaks with her in her native language.
Surprisingly, he was fired from the children’s television show Romper Room at age five. Producers felt he was too disruptive and energetic for the calm nature of the program.
Leonardo DiCaprio turned down the role of Max Dennison in the Halloween classic Hocus Pocus. He chose to film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape instead, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination.
During the filming of Django Unchained, he slammed his hand on a table and accidentally shattered a glass. He ignored the bleeding wound and stayed in character, so the director used that real take.
He bought a massive island off the coast of Belize called Blackadore Caye. He plans to transform the 104-acre [42-hectare] land into an eco-friendly resort to restore the local environment.
In 2010, he donated $1,000,000 [€950,000] to save tigers in Nepal and Russia. His foundation consistently funds projects to protect endangered species around the globe.
Leonardo DiCaprio famously ate a raw bison liver for his role in The Revenant. Although he is a vegetarian, he did it to get a genuine reaction of disgust for the camera.
The Taliban famously banned his specific hairstyle in Afghanistan during the height of Titanic mania. Barbers faced jail time if they gave customers the floppy “Leo” haircut.
A terrifying skydiving accident almost cost him his life when his main parachute failed to open. Fortunately, his instructor managed to untangle the reserve chute just moments before they hit the ground.
He and his co-star Kate Winslet paid the nursing home fees for the last living Titanic survivor. They wanted to ensure Millvina Dean lived comfortably during her final years.
Leonardo DiCaprio owns a giant Sulcata tortoise that can live for 80 years. He bought the 38-pound [17-kilogram] reptile at a trade show in California.
While vacationing in the Caribbean, he helped save a man who had fallen off a cruise ship. His boat was the only one searching, and they found the man after 11 hours in the water.
The U.S. government forced him to return an Oscar statue that originally belonged to Marlon Brando. A corrupt financier had gifted it to him, but it was actually stolen property.
The Godfather changed cinema forever with its gritty portrayal of family and power. While fans quote the dialogue daily, the production behind the scenes was as dramatic as the movie itself. For instance, the studio almost fired the director several times during filming. Furthermore, the most iconic prop in the movie was actually a happy accident. Prepare to enter the world of the Corleones.
Godfather
The cat in the opening scene was a stray. Francis Ford Coppola found the animal wandering around the studio lot and handed it to Marlon Brando. Its loud purring actually muffled some of the dialogue, which required the actors to re-record their lines later.
Marlon Brando used cue cards instead of memorizing his lines. He believed that reading the words for the first time made his performance feel more spontaneous. Consequently, the crew hid script pages behind lamps, bushes, and even on the chests of other actors.
The horse head in the bed was completely real. During rehearsals, the crew used a fake head, but the director wanted a more authentic reaction from actor John Marley. Therefore, he sourced a real head from a dog-food factory, and the actor’s terrified screams were genuine.
The word mafia never appears in the first movie. A real-life Italian-American league pressured the producers to remove the term from the script. Thus, the characters use words like family or business to describe their criminal activities instead.
Al Pacino was nearly fired during the first week of filming The Godfather. Studio executives thought his performance was too quiet and boring. However, they changed their minds after seeing the intense restaurant scene where Michael kills Sollozzo and McCluskey.
James Caan wore 127 blood-filled explosive squibs for his death scene. This sequence at the toll booth was the most expensive shot in the entire movie. It cost over 100,000 dollars to set up and required more than 200 pre-drilled holes in the car.
Oranges always signal a coming death or tragedy. Whenever you see the fruit on screen, a character usually dies or suffers a near-fatal attack shortly after. This visual theme became one of the most famous easter eggs in film history.
Robert De Niro originally auditioned for the role of Sonny Corleone. While he did not get that part, the director remembered his talent for the sequel. As a result, De Niro won an Oscar for playing the younger version of Vito Corleone.
The legendary line about the cannoli was improvised. The script only told actor Richard Castellano to leave the gun behind. However, he added the part about the pastry because a previous scene mentioned his character’s wife wanted dessert.
Marlon Brando used a dental plumper to create his bulldog jaw. For his audition, he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool to change his facial shape. Later, a dentist created a custom prosthetic that the actor wore throughout the entire production.
The Godfather Part II was the first sequel to win Best Picture. Before this achievement, Hollywood viewed sequels as cheap cash-ins rather than serious art. This victory changed how the industry approached long-form storytelling.
Sofia Coppola appears in all three movies of the trilogy. She played the infant baby in the first film, an immigrant child in the second, and Michael’s daughter in the third. Her final role drew significant criticism for her acting abilities.
The actors held family dinners in character to build chemistry. The director organized these meals so the cast could establish their relationships naturally. They had to stay in character while eating spaghetti and drinking wine together.
Sylvester Stallone auditioned for several minor roles in The Godfather but was rejected. He tried out for the parts of Paulie Gatto and Carlo Rizzi before he became a star. Ironically, he later became one of the biggest names in Hollywood alongside the cast.
Marlon Brando refused his Academy Award for Best Actor. He sent an activist named Sacheen Littlefeather to the ceremony in his place. She gave a speech protesting the treatment of Native Americans in film instead of taking the trophy.
