‘There has never been a more exciting, exhausting and dangerous time to be an investigative journalist. Our film talks about the cost of it and its importance,’ says Meryl Streep
Often known as the Queen of Hollywood, this exceptional Hollywood actress is the only actress in history to receive 21 Oscar nominations, winning three already for her phenomenal performances. Meryl Streep is nominated again this year for The Post where she plays the role of Katherine Graham. The movie is based on the true story of the tumultuous time in 1971 when The Washington Post had to take the decision of publishing of Pentagon Papers, risking everything they had, including the publication itself.
Meryl Streep talks about discovering more about Katherine Graham, why the film is relevant even today, how it resonates with the TimesUp movement and how she thinks the award season will be different this year.
Tell us about your movie, The PostIJ
Well, it’s about a lot of things but mostly it’s about one week in 1971 that’s really significant in our history. It’s a time when the Washington Post decided to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers; it was something that the New York Times had begun and Nixon had tried to shut it down. It was the first time that the government pre-emptively tried to stop the presses before they wrote the story. It was about the week in which a woman ran a newspaper which was really unusual in those days. They weren’t even allowed to be reporters in those days.
Nora Ephron, who the film is dedicated to, graduated from an esteemed college, being a rankholder of her class and went to Newsweek at the time and applied for a job as a reporter. The man looked at Nora Ephron and said ‘well, you could be a secretary, an assistant but reporters are men, writers are men’ and that was the way it was. It was not that long ago actually, I was graduating from college that year. So I remember how different the world was.
It fell to this woman to make this decision and she happened to have a great Managing Editor of a newspaper, Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) and they had a working partnership that was a template for the best of how men and women can work together.
What was it about the film when it was initially offered to you that made you want to go ahead with itIJ
Well, the first screenplay I got was written by liz Hannah and it was centered on Katherine Graham and the event of the publication of the Pentagon Papers; what part The (Washington) Post played in that. It was unusual because it was focused on her. I was familiar with the stories of the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers but I really didn’t know much about her. Nora Ephron had told me that her autobiography was one of the great books of that part of the century and that I should read it. liz’s script has a flavor of that time and I found it incredibly compelling and a story not told before.
I feel like if this movie had come out two years ago we would have thought of the idea as unthinkable that a paper wouldn’t print something which is such a massive information because the President asked them not to, but now with the current Trump administration, it doesn’t seem unthinkable anymore. Was it a mere coincidence that the movie came out during this administration or was the timing deliberateIJ
Well, I think the freedom of the press and the assault on the press by the government to shut down a story is something that has risen over and over again since the new-age world but I think Steven Spielberg felt the impetus to get this out the right away and he worked really fast — we started shooting in May and finished in end of July, he had a cut two weeks later. Nobody makes a movie like that — it was just incredible. Also, there has never been a more exciting, exhausting and dangerous time to be an investigative journalist. Our film talks about the cost of it and its importance.
Not just in terms of journalism but I also think the film is relevant today as it’s about how a woman can make herself heardIJ
One of the themes the film deals with is how difficult it is to stand up. So that sort of speaks to our moment where the truth is so amorphous and difficult to nail down and that’s a feeling shared by not only women but men as well. It’s hard to risk a great deal to tell the truth
With everything that's happening, do you think the award season this year will be quite different this year — more political, restrained or seriousIJ
I think it will be more aware. I think it might lead to the moment where, at least in my business, people walk into a room and they look around and see three women and nine men and think there is something wrong — that it’s off.
(Watch if Meryl Streep will take win a hat trick Oscar for Best Actress this year for The Post live on Star Movies and Star Movies Select HD on March 5 at 5.30 am and repeat at 8:30 pm)