The many faces of Meryl Streep

Safer: Yes.

Streep: Oh, God, wasn't she divine?

[Streep at Delacorte Theater: Here's where I forgot my lines in "The Seagull"...]

Soon, she was doing the classics on this outdoor stage. Competing with airplanes, heat, rain and more.

Streep: Quack, quack.

Safer: Ducks.

Streep: Do you hear that?

Her career took off so fast that one summer, she did "Taming of the Shrew" here at night.

[Dustin Hoffman in "Kramer vs. Kramer": Hey, hey, hey!]

And during the day, shot two movies: "Kramer vs. Kramer," and Woody Allen's "Manhattan." She was well on her way.

[Woody Allen in "Manhattan": Are you writing a book about our marriage?

Streep: Will you leave me alone?]

Her range was astonishing. One year, a Texan, Karen Silkwood.

[Streep: Let's not fight.]

The next, Danish in "Out of Africa."

[Streep: Bror has asked me for a divorce. He has found someone that he wants to marry.]

She wore spandex for "Mamma Mia." A nun's habit for "Doubt." And a beard, playing a rabbi in "Angels in America."

Streep: It always really bothers me when people imagine that characters that don't look like you, or have the same accent as you do, are far from you. The great actress Sybil Thorndike said "I think we all have the germ of every other person inside of us." And I think we do.

[Reporter in "Iron Lady": Baroness Thatcher, how are you feeling?]

Margaret Thatcher is 86 now. Her daughter Carol has written openly about her mother's slide into the darkness of dementia. The film tackles the issue head on.

Safer: Did you have any concerns about showing this once remarkably vital woman having lost it all?

Streep: Well, that was the part that most intrigued me. First of all, I don't feel there's any shame in dementia, in people that suffer from it.

[Thatcher's daughter in "Iron Lady": And you're not Prime Minister any more.]

Streep: To tell an honest story about a big life in its ebb, you have to, you have to deal with this part of it.

There's one observation that gets her back up: when people note that she's played a lot of strong-minded women.

Streep: No one has ever asked an actor, 'You're playing a strong-minded man.' We assume that men are strong-minded, or have opinions. But a strong-minded woman is a different animal.

She's the public face of a movement to build a National Women's History Museum in Washington.

Streep: Margaret Thatcher said, "If you want something spoken about, ask a man. If you want it done, ask a woman."

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[usunus]

People like this Hollywood lady don't go away gracefully.

[pgchis]

Thank you for the great interview of Meryl Streep. She is a remarkable actress that doesn't let her political views influence her portrayals or opinions of remarkable people (Margaret Thatcher). I was very surprised that one of the most powerful films she was a part of was not included in your story. "The Deer Hunter" was one of the most influential movies of it's time and I am disappointed it wasn't acknowledged.