GERMANY: Meryl Streep, in Berlin to be honoured by the film festival with a lifetime achievement award, has Berlinale audiences utterly charmed as she shows she is nothing like, her film nameskae, 'The Iron Lady'

Record ID: 249085

  • Title: GERMANY: Meryl Streep, in Berlin to be honoured by the film festival with a lifetime achievement award, has Berlinale audiences utterly charmed as she shows she is nothing like, her film nameskae, 'The Iron Lady'
  • Date: 15th February 2012
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 14, 2012) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) ACTRESS, WHO PLAYS MARGARET THATCHER IN FILM, 'IRON LADY,' MERYL STREEP, GIVING AUTOGRAPHS BEFORE NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF STREEP GIVING AUTOGRAPHS STREEP ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE ARM OF BERILNALE DIRECTOR, DIETER KOSSLICK HOLDING BUNCH OF ROSES CLOSE OF STREEP WITH FLOWERS WIDE OF N
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2012 12:00
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  • Location: Germany, Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA3DNGAMRFJFAJL90HE7OZNV9WP
  • Story Text: Meryl Streep was given a bouquet of flowers, a gift and a kiss at the Berlin film festival on Valentine's Day (February 14), and they weren't from her husband.
    The 62-year-old actress was at the annual cinema showcase on Tuesday to receive a lifetime achievement Golden Bear. At a packed press conference following a screening of her latest movie "The Iron Lady", Streep reflected on how playing Margaret Thatcher in the biopic had changed her opinion of the former British Prime Minister. "You know, I thought she was a friend of Reagan (former U.S. President Ronald Reagan)-Bad!, " Streep said. "I thought, you know, she had frumpy clothes and bad hair. You know, this is the way women judge each other (laughter) in the public realm. And now wonderfully I am on the other end of that. People say the same thing about me, so. But I came to learn a lot of different things about her that surprised me."
    At one point, a journalist climbed up on stage, presented Streep with a bunch of white flowers and gave her a kiss.
    Another reporter gave her a Russian doll, each layer of which was painted to represent her in a different film role, including "The Iron Lady" and "The Devil Wears Prada". Two days ago, the American won a best actress BAFTA award in London for "The Iron Lady" to add to the Golden Globe she received for the same role. She is a front-runner to scoop her third Oscar on Feb. 26.
    Streep said she was overwhelmed at being given the lifetime achievement award in Berlin: "And to imagine that so many years later I would be on the stage of the most prestigious film festival and receiving a lifetime achievement award. It is like a dream. It really is like a dream. I am trying to make it feel real and I am trying to make it feel like me and it's not quite there yet."
    The "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Sophie's Choice" star said she was surprised by what she discovered about Thatcher during the making of "The Iron Lady".
    The film jumps between a young Thatcher rising through the ranks of British politics and a frail, elderly woman suffering dementia who looks back on her life with pride and regret.
    However, the actress said she learned that Thatcher was not anti-abortion but pro-choice, did not dismantle Britain's National Health Service and warned the United States at an early stage about the threat of global warming.
    Britain's first female prime minister was also undoubtedly a feminist who helped paved the way for more equal rights between sexes, Streep added.
    The Berlin festival, also know as the Berlinale, winds up with an awards ceremony on Feb. 18.
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