During a meeting with the public at the Cannes Film Festival, American actress Meryl Streep looked back on the highlights of her career, and on this particularly difficult scene.
In an acting career, there are some roles that are more memorable than others. Especially in a filmography like that of Meryl Streep, who has a string of memorable roles that earned her, on May 14, the honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. At a meeting with the public the next day, the actress spoke generously about her work and her iconic films. However, admitting to a scene that was particularly difficult to perform.
If she was complex to embody, she was also complex to watch. Movie fans all remember the pivotal scene in Sophie’s Choice that gives the film its heartbreaking title. Released in 1982, this historical drama by Alan J. Pakula follows the story of an American writer in 1947, who gradually discovers the painful past of his neighbor, a Polish woman who survived the Nazi camps. This is performed brilliantly by Meryl Streep.
And those who have watched the film know very well that his character must make a difficult choice that has traumatized generations of spectators: choosing to sacrifice his son to the detriment of his daughter upon arriving at Auschwitz. If she doesn’t choose one to kill, both will die killed by the Nazis in the camp. This painful, impossible choice will result in a major scene in the history of cinema.
Meryl Streep remembered the filming of this scene on May 15, 2024, during her meeting hosted by Didier Allouch with the audience at the Cannes Film Festival. A scene as heartbreaking for the actress as for the audience, and probably even more: “I only read the script for this scene once. I couldn’t even read it, I was upset. I doesn’t like to think about it,” she said. However, this cruel moment was filmed twice, to capture the best reaction of the young actress who played his daughter, at the moment when she was taken away by the Nazi commanders, as she remembers it.
This scene remains major in Meryl Streep’s career. “Nothing helps you when you have such heavy moments to play,” she explains to describe her working process. “My technique varies from role to role. For scenes that have depth, you let go of yourself in a certain way, in order to deliver a raw performance, without a net.” Whatever the technique, this moving performance allowed Meryl Streep to win one of her three Oscars in 1983.