1、梅丽尔斯特里普完美无瑕的演艺人生梅丽尔斯特里普完美无瑕的演艺人生 I have to try really really really really hard. I mean that could be my epitaph: She tried really hard.我一定要非常非常非常地用功。我是说，这句话可以作为我的墓志铭：她一生都在拼搏。Meryl Streep (梅丽尔?斯特里普)In the flesh1), she does not have an aura. Shes not lit from within. Heads do not snap2) in her direct
2、ion when she walks through a hotel lobby in a baggy maxi-dress and brown calf-high boots, flanked by her dutiful makeup artist of 36 years and her imperious3) publicistthe few celebrity trappings4) of a woman who stubbornly considers herself a working actor, and nothing more.And yet for half of her
3、63 years she has been dubbed either the Greatest Film Actress of Her Generation or, now, the Greatest Living Film Actress.So how does Meryl Streep, working actor, advance her artistry when she has nothing left to prove, when everything she does seems beyond reproach?In a room off the lobby of the W
4、hotel, she removes her glasses and hair clip and tosses both on a table. She is beautifulas she has always beenin the remote, masky way a sculpture by Michelangelo is beautiful. Her presence in person feels like the absence of a character. And for this question, she must play the Greatest Living Fil
5、m Actress.“I feel more worried because, you know, the expectations are so high,” she says, brushing out her blond-white hair into a mane5). “I do work very hard. I think Ive always been that type of girl, from the very beginning. Im the oldest, and I feel like I have to do a good job. I have to try
6、really really really really hard. I mean that could be my epitaph6): She tried really hard.”She looks down, eyes glazing over, as if seeing her gravestone.“She tried,” she repeats softly, shrugging, then releasing a husky giggle. “You know?”Deep into itWe know, Meryl.The mastery of foreign accents,
7、the exhaustive7) preparation and pinpoint8) technique, the 17 Oscar nominations from 47 feature films over 36 years. You tried. And succeeded.There never wasnt praise. Praise since a professor at Vassar called her acting “mind-boggling9),” praise since her drama school days at Yale, where she gave h
8、erself an ulcer10) playing 40 stage roles in three years. Praise in 1975 when she first got to New York, where Joseph Papp11) called her the most remarkable actress whod ever come through his Public Theater.Forget crying on cue12). She was able to blush on cue, Papp said.“Shes going to be the Eleano
9、r Roosevelt13) of acting,” said Dustin Hoffman, her Kramer vs. Kramer co-star, in a 1980 Newsweek cover story that proclaimed her “A Star for the 80s.” Critics in that era placed her at the vanguard14) of “the new American actor”trained within an inch of her life15) in multiple genres and therefore
10、confident and nimble16) enough to explore wildly. To try. She tried in Sophies Choice and entered the pantheon at 33. The tryingthe precision bordering on mimicry17)was a turnoff18) for some.“She has, as usual, put thought and effort into her work,” wrote New Yorker critic Pauline Kael in her review
11、 of Sophies Choice. “It could be said that in her zeal to be an honest actress she allows nothing to escape her conception of a performance. Instead of trying to achieve freedom in front of the camera, shes predetermining what it records.”Nitpick19).She tried working-class (Silkwood). She tried epic
12、 (Out of Africa), comedy (Death Becomes Her) and action (The River Wild). She tried and sometimes fell short of perfection, but even her flubs20) are gold, according to Clint Eastwood21), who directed her in The Bridges of Madison County in 1995.“When I showed her a rough cut of the film, she said,
13、Youve printed all my mistakes!?” Eastwood says. “And I said, Yeah, and theyre so good.?”The source of this unassailable ability remains a mystery, even to her, says cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, who shot Julie & Julia, in which Streep channeled Julia Child, and the telepic Angels in America, in
14、 which Streep played four roles, including the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg.“I remember Mike Nichols22) asking her, Why did you do this or that? in the scene where Ethels with Roy Cohn as hes dying,” Goldblatt says. “And she said, .?.?. I dont know. And I really think thats the essence. Shes so deep int
15、o it that shes not having a conscious conversation as an artist, as an actor, with herself. Its that good. Its not even skill or artifice. Its complete subjection to the character. She is no longer Meryl Streep.”Desire to do wellAnd yet shes Meryl Streep here, in this room off the Ws lobby, hours be
16、fore appearing at a gala23) for the National Womens History Museum.There is nothing to say about her handshake, her mood, her carriage. She has no smell. Her eyes, obscured by modish rectangular glasses, seem dark and colorlessuntil she begins to recite a verse by 8th-century poet Wang Wei to prove
17、a point about an artists individual voice.“I seem to be alone on the empty mountain24),” Streep says in her silvery contralto25), shifting her posture as if bracing for a blast of high-altitude air.She pauses.For an almost uncomfortable period of time.“Yet suddenly I hear a voice .”Another long paus
18、e.Her eyes search the air. They are slate blue, sparkling. “Is it sunshine entering a forest grove, shining back at me from the green moss?”And scene.We get it now. The moss. Or, rather, the sunshine off it. Thats the mystical place where the Streepness originates. Now, it shines on what she calls “
19、big, terrifying” roles that make her nervous and therefore challenge her impeccable instrument. Her most recent mark is Margaret Thatcher, whom she plays in the The Iron Lady.“For a girl from Jersey to walk into an English soundstage with 40 of the best English actors and presume to be their first w
20、oman prime minister, its just like, Oh my God, who do you think you are?” Streep says. “It really does raise the stakes26) and makes the adrenaline flow.”Her characters, she says, help her understand little things about herself, and she will continue to pick projects that fill in her own paint-by-nu
21、mbers27) portrait. How does she dovetail with Thatcher?“Terrifyingly close,” she says, cackling. “That dutifulness, that relentlessness28), that desire to do well, do right. To act according to your convictions. To try, try, try. Keep trying, keep trying. Dont let the bastards get you. Dont let them
22、 say youre too old.”Old seems to work for Meryl. In the past few years, she has eased into her emerita29)-ness, turned each acceptance speech into a master class of diva30) comportment31), relished32) roles in exuberant33)-if-commercial projectsand her box office receipts have started matching the v
23、olume of her critical praise. A string of movies made more than $100 million: The Devil Wears Prada, in which she nibbled scenery as an ice-queen fashion editor, Mamma Mia!, in which she belted34) Abba35) songs in the Greek Isles, and Its Complicated, in which she bedded Alec Baldwin36) between 1,50
24、0-thread-count37) sheets.Those dollars, she says, are the only reason shes still employed. Simple as that.“My generation of actressesmy friends, my cohortshould be working at the same level of endeavor as I am, and theyre not,” Streep says. “Why? Because to businessmen, theyre old. And that bugs me.
25、 Thats wrong. Because the audience is there.”Earlier in the week, she was in London for a tribute to Vanessa Redgrave38), whom Streep calls “the pinnacle.” The film reel included a lengthy dinner scene from Julia, Streeps first movie role.“First of all, youd never see a scene like that in a movie no
26、w,” Streep says. “The idea that a camera and the audience would be interested to just sit at a table for nine minutes and experience the tension that was going on in the scene . Jesus. What is happening to this thing we love? Film! Its so powerful.” And she leans back in her chair, exhales39) and ex
27、tends her arms in some strange supplication to her chosen medium, as if she has opened herself up as a sounding board40), an instrument to be played by the universe, a lute suspendedabsorbing and projecting, at this moment, a rich vibe41) of weary gratitude.“Ask a woman”Between the hotel and the Ron
28、ald Reagan Building, she does not make a costume change. She appears onstage in the same baggy dress, with the same casual hair. She trumpets the idea of a National Womens History Museum, ably performing her prepared remarks and then, in closing, decides to try something.“As Margaret Thatcher would
29、say?” and without warning she drops her voice a half-tone, upholsters42) her throat with a bristly British accent, cocks her head to suggest a hairdo and blazer and strand of pearls that arent actually there, and the air in the theater suddenly turns chilly and electric, like a seance43) is afoot, a
30、nd behind the rostrum now is a fully-formed life force radiating energy:“?If you want something spoken about, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.?”The audience gasps at the quick-change and roars with approval, and then Streep snaps out of it, and Thatcher is gone, and so is she, rep
31、laced by applause.单从自身条件来讲，她并?有耀眼的光环。她的光芒也并非来自内在的涵养。当她穿着宽大的长裙和棕色的及膝皮靴从酒店大厅走过时，众人并?有齐刷刷地转头向她行注目礼。陪在她身边的，一个是她恪尽职守的化妆师(已为她工作36年)，一个是她一脸傲气的发言人这是她作为名人仅有的一点点缀，她总是很固执地认为自己只是一个职业演员，别的什么都不是。然而，在她63岁的人生历程中，有一半的时间人们称她为“同代人中的最佳女电影演员”，或者，正如现在人们对她的称呼那样，“当代最佳女电影演员”。那么，梅丽尔?斯特里普，一个仅仅把演艺看做是一种职业的人，在事业达到巅峰之后，在一切都完美得似乎无
32、可挑剔之后，又将如何提升自己的艺术造诣呢？在W酒店大厅临近的一个房间里，她摘下了墨镜和发夹，随手把它们扔到一张桌子上。和往常一样，她还是那么美那是一种像米开朗基罗雕像一样遥远而模糊的美。但单从她自身的姿态来看，总让人觉得好像少了点“大牌”的气派。要想看到这种气派，必须得是她扮演“当代最佳女电影演员”的时候。“我感到压力越来越大，要知道，人们的期望太高了，”她一边说，一边梳理着浅淡的金发，使其自然下垂，“我的确很勤奋。我觉得我一直都是非常勤奋的人，从一开始就是。我是年纪最大的，我觉得自己一定要把事情做好。我一定要非常非常非常地用功。我是说，这句话可以作为我的墓志铭：她一生都在拼搏。”她视线下移，目光凝滞，仿若在看着自己的墓碑一样。“拼搏，”她轻声地重复着，耸了耸肩，然后沙哑着声音咯咯笑了起来，“你们知道吗？”爱拼才会赢我们知道的，梅丽尔。惟妙惟肖的外国口音，巨细无遗的场外准备
