a better photo of the Silkwood Oscar dressThis is the last Streep-centric post for this Oscar season (unless she does something crazy at the Oscars), promise!
I used to always make a point of saying that Meryl Streep gets nominated for 39% of her performances, having appeared in 46 features and being nominated 18 times. But in truth her record is better than that. Once you eliminate the performances that couldn't have been nominated her record is an even more incredible 53% (a good example is her leading role in Plenty released in 1985 since she was nominated for her leading role in Out of Africa and an actor may only have one nomination per category unlike behind-the-camera people who are allowed to double up). So, fact: as soon as she reports to work on each new film she is more likely to be nominated than not for whatever it is she is about to do.
Is this the best record ever? Among actors, yes (once you eliminate the people who only made a few films and died/quit). But, otherwise, nope. John Williams has the closest thing to infallibility since he's nominated for virtually everything he does but let's not get sidetracked. Let's look at Streep's past in gown form and her future in role form after the jump.
All of Meryl's Oscar Nominated Looks 1978-2012
With thanks to Google Image Search and Simply Streep
Meryl at the 51st, 52nd, 54th, 55th, and 56th Oscars
Meryl at the 58th, 60th, 61st, and 68th Oscars
I can't remember why she didn't attend the 1990 ceremony (spring 1991) but she gave birth to the youngest of her four children (Louisa) that year so perhaps she was pregnant. Still, it's atypical of her to miss.
Meryl at the 71st, 72nd, 75th, 79th, and 81st Oscars
Meryl at the 82nd, and 84th Oscars
Which were your favorites? What color do you think she'll wear exactly a week from now? She has a very narrow color palette on Oscar night as you can see from this handy guide above.
How many more nominations do you think Streep has in her? She turns 65 this June. Streep can't be contained by anything as impotent as 'the normal rules' but nominations are seldom seen for senior citizen actresses. (Though of the dozen or so noms afforded them in Lead Actress, Judi Dench has three of them recently so maybe Streep shouldn't worry). There's a lot more senior citizen nominees among supporting actresses but Streep gets the most attention for her headline gigs. Given that Nicholson & Hepburn, the second most nominated actors of all time, have "only" 12 each - haha - how much further can she really go?
Streep gets long grey locks as The Chief Elder in "The Giver"And if you had to put money on it right now, do you think she gets her 19th nod for that vegetable-hoarding witch in Into the Woods (Christmas 2014), a supporting role as a woman who collects madwomen to take back to their homes in The Homesman (TBA, Hilary Swank is the title character and filming is complete), the chief elder in YA adaptation The Giver (Aug 2014) or her supporting role as a famous women's lib activist in Suffragette (TBA not yet filming) which should all be arriving between summer 2014 and Christmas 2015. Since her role in The Suffragette is small, and since Streep isn't one to knit at home, she has plenty of time to shove in a leading role for 2015. I'm holding you to your guesswork.