Meryl Streep may look up to Barbara Stanwyck and Vanessa Redgrave as acting inspirations, but the most-nominated Academy Award darling named Robert De Niro as the actor she most aspires to be like.While introducing De Niro at the 65th anniversary of the A Celebration of Film gala benefitting the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Streep recalled thinking De Niro was a Southern “non-actor” in John D.
Hancock’s 1973 film “Bang the Drum Slowly.”“We thought they must have scoured Appalachia to find this guy,” Streep said (via The Hollywood Reporter), before seeing De Niro two months later in Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” and being shocked at his method acting range.“There’s the guy, there’s the same kid,” Streep recalled thinking at the time.
“And only he’s not slow.
He’s not Southern.
He’s a New York punk.
He’s absolutely mean,
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