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Film Icons: Meryl Streep / Sidney Poitier

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

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Film Icons: Meryl Streep / Sidney Poitier

Fresh Air

2024/08/28
Fresh Air

Fresh Air

2024/08/28
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Our special series of archival interviews continues with two of the GOATs: Meryl Streep, the actor with the most Oscar nominations in history, spoke with Terry Gross in 2012 about playing Margaret Thatcher. And Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win be...

Highlights

This episode revisits two landmark archival interviews that illuminate the profound craft, resilience, and moral conviction behind iconic performances.
03:45
Mimicking Thatcher’s voice was like singing along with a record, demanding sustained breath
07:23
Worked with Roy Helland and Mark Coulier to minimize facial prosthetics for better expressiveness
17:54
She let them know she understood Italian—and didn't care about the role or a bad reputation
33:13
Poitier bought a radio to learn the American accent after being thrown out of his first audition
42:36
Poitier changed the slap scene in In the Heat of the Night because he found the original version reprehensible
46:38
Poitier insisted on rewriting a film scene to show a more natural response

Chapters

How did Streep turn Thatcher’s voice into a full-body act of authority?
00:00
What happened when Streep’s voice, face, and cooking all had to become Julia Child—and why did that audition almost fail?
07:23
When did Streep realize she was being judged not for her talent—but for speaking Italian back?
17:54
Why did Streep get typecast as witches at 40—and how did Poitier break through Hollywood’s accent barrier?
26:46
What made Poitier walk away from a slap—then demand he slap back instead?
36:18
Was Poitier’s famous stare something he practiced—or something that rose up from inside?
46:38

Transcript

Speaker 5: This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics with A Private Life. Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars as Lillian Steiner, a psychiatrist tortured by the death of a patient, taking the case into her own hands. Now playing Select Cities, com...