Meryl Streep is one of the most acclaimed and iconic actors in the world. She’s been nominated for 21 Academy Awards and won three. She’s also won BAFTAs, Emmys, and Golden Globes. Streep has appeared in all kinds of movies, from the darkest of dramas to the silliest of comedies. She recently showed off her improv chops in Adam McKay’s sci-fi satire Don’t Look Up.
But for an actor to truly shine, they need a well-matched scene partner. Throughout her prolific, decades-long career, Streep has shared the screen with such stars as Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, and Shirley MacLaine.
Tom Hanks In The Post
While the many VFX shots were being added to The Post. Uniting three Hollywood legends, the docudrama chronicles the Washington Post’s efforts to expose the Nixon istration’s corruption.
Throughout the movie, both Streep and Hanks are on the same page (pardon the pun) ing this story to convey the importance of the free press.
Amanda Seyfried In Mamma Mia!
Telling the story of a bride-to-be’s efforts to figure out the identity of her biological father ahead of her wedding, Mamma Mia! became one of the highest-grossing musical movies ever made.
ABBA’s music is the true star of the movie, but Streep and her co-star Amanda Seyfried anchor the material with a tangible, relatable mother-daughter dynamic.
Jonah Hill In Don’t Look Up
The star-studded cast of Adam McKay’s new sci-fi satire Don’t Look Up – a witty allegory for the climate crisis – features Streep as a hilariously ineffective U.S. President and Jonah Hill as her son and Chief of Staff.
Both Streep and Hill are hilarious improvisers. Their dynamic is an incisive critique of nepotism in the White House and they steal every scene they’re in.
Dustin Hoffman In Kramer Vs. Kramer
Both Streep and Dustin Hoffman won Oscars for their performances in Kramer vs. Kramer. The movie offers a heartbreaking portrait of a bitter divorce.
The movie frames this story through the effect that the divorce has on the couple’s young son. The script explores then-taboo social issues like fathers’ rights, gender roles, and single parenting, which Streep and Hoffman brought to life with sympathetic portrayals of their characters.
Anne Hathaway In The Devil Wears Prada
A biting critique of the fashion industry, a delightfully villainous Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly and lovable everywoman Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs.
Andy lands a job as Miranda’s co-assistant and quickly learns just how cutthroat she really is. Miranda is believed to be a satirical caricature of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, which Streep leans into to hysterical effect.
Robert De Niro In The Deer Hunter
One of Streep’s earliest roles was Linda in cinematic portrayals of the Vietnam War, only around half an hour of its three-hour runtime takes place on the battlefields of Vietnam. Director Michael Cimino is more interested in the psychological toll that the war took on its veterans.
The early scenes in small-town blue-collar America establish that both Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken’s characters – Mike and Nick, respectively – are in love with Streep’s. She falls for Nick, but tragically, Mike is the only one who comes back from the war.
Shirley MacLaine In Postcards From The Edge
In one of Streep’s many collaborations with director Mike Nichols, she starred in Postcards from the Edge as an actor and recovering drug addict who is only released from rehab on the condition that she stays with her responsible mother, played brilliantly by Shirley MacLaine.
Carrie Fisher adapted her own semi-autobiographical novel into a screenplay. The talents of Fisher, Nichols, and a perfectly matched Streep and MacLaine all combined to bring out the beauty and humanity in this story.
Clint Eastwood In The Bridges Of Madison County
Clint Eastwood directed himself and Streep in the lead roles of an adaptation of The Bridges of Madison County that’s surprisingly much more highly respected than its source material.
The efforts of two of the greatest, most iconic actors of all time elevate the novel’s notoriously vapid content with real emotional depth.
Goldie Hawn In Death Becomes Her
Streep has a hysterical back-and-forth with Goldie Hawn in Robert Zemeckis’ cult classic dark comedy Death Becomes Her as vain romantic rivals vying for the affections of Bruce Willis’ plastic surgeon character Dr. Ernest Menville.
They both take a potion that grants them eternal life, which creates a fun, unique dynamic between the two characters that fits the pitch-black comedic tone of the movie perfectly.
Kevin Kline In Sophie’s Choice
Arguably Streep’s most critically acclaimed performance is her Oscar-winning turn as the titular Holocaust survivor in Sophie’s Choice. The movie is mainly defined by Sophie’s past, but the story is told through the tumultuous relationship in her present.
Streep gives easily the movie’s greatest performance as Sophie, but Kevin Kline gives a mesmerizing, sometimes disturbing turn as her erratic boyfriend.
