How Meryl Streep went from Oscars perennial to plus one

The much-nominated star hasn’t had an Oscar-worthy role in years, but there’s still no keeping her off the red carpet. Will she win again?

It’s been the most familiar sight of awards season for decade upon decade: Meryl Streep sauntering down red carpets. Hardly a spring has sprung without a Streep nomination, somewhere, poking up through the topsoil.

Even when the Oscars have given her the odd year off, those cheerleaders at the (slightly trashier) Golden Globes have come to the rescue, choosing to pluck one of Streep’s comedic turns for praise, or they’ve hailed her recent pivot into quality television instead.

It was no surprise, given the 33 (!!) nominations she’s hoovered up so far from the latter body, that Streep succeeded in snagging one this year — Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role on Television, for her guest-starring, Martin-Short-snogging role as a failed thespian in Only Murders in the Building. By the standards of this three-time-Oscar-winning titan of her craft, this was a minuscule footnote in the annals of acclaim. She lost, two months ago, to Elizabeth Debicki for The Crown.

Since then, the only thing not predictable about the road to the Oscars has been clocking Streep’s appearances as a mere passenger — just an all-time great taking it easy, tagging along for the ride. She has found it hard to resist getting in on the red-carpet action — as part of a Devil Wears Prada reunion at the SAG Awards or as the guest of her son-in-law, Mark Ronson. He co-wrote the Barbie song, I’m Just Ken, which looks likely to come second on Oscar night to the other song from Barbie (the truly gorgeous one by Billie Eilish, What I Was Made For).

Not that Streep has tended to break a sweat even in years when she has a shot at glory, but she has certainly earned a rest, and she shows all the signs of relishing this stint as a plus one. Attending the hoopla must be so much more relaxing with the pressure off — no schmoozing of the press to worry about, no waiting for that envelope to open and reveal you’ve just lost for the 18th time, while you beam in always-genuine delight for the winner. (That Oscar record: she has won Best Actress twice, for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady, and Best Supporting Actress once, for Kramer vs Kramer. There have been 17 other nominations – meaning Meryl has in fact lost more than twice as many times as Glenn Close has.)

Streep has won Best Actress twice, for Sophie’s Choice and The Iron Lady. Photo / Getty Images

Streep habitually makes being Meryl Streep look easy. It can’t always be. Recently, she and her husband, Don Gummer, made public the news that they’ve been quietly separated for six years. Divorce has not been mentioned, but could very well be brewing.

That same period, six years, is coeval with a weirdly shocking piece of future pub trivia. It’s that long since Streep got her last Oscar nomination, for Steven Spielberg’s The Post back in 2018. This is the longest period of time she’s ever gone without one, since her very first, for The Deer Hunter (1978). Like Bougainvillea deprived of sunshine, what even happens to a Streep starved of the Oscar spotlight?

She seems, if anything, serenely unbothered. If you take a look at her film roles lately, they’re mostly light and breezy. She’s been enjoying singing (Ricki and the Flash, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, The Prom). Even her potentially plum supporting turns in awards bait — Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up — have not particularly strained to stand out. Neither of those performances got pushed much for nominations, which those roles could easily have scored if Streep was really feeling it, pulling out all the stops.

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One hates to accuse Streep of coasting (even if the shoe fits) and we can never rule out the storming, powerhouse role just around the corner, waiting to catch us all off guard. If she could match the level of a Silkwood or The Bridges of Madison County — wow.

But she hasn’t shot a film since playing to the gallery with her venal US president in Don’t Look Up — that was three years ago. The last time she got her teeth into a dramatic role was for HBO’s Big Little Lies in 2019, and that was the definition of a safe ensemble bet: “Come on in, the water’s full of A-list actresses delving into trauma, you can’t miss”.

All legendary stars need breathers — moments to take stock. But Streep has been such a prolific striver through such sustained periods of her career — especially the epic 1980s — that it’s hard to imagine her being content to rest on these laurels for long. The very thought of Streep edging towards retirement, cosy and well-earned though it might be for her, is existentially painful for everyone else.

Tina Fey quipped once that “there really are great roles in Hollywood for Meryl Streeps over 60″. But now we have to start asking — how about 70? 75? (That’s only a year off.) Or have we just entered an entirely new epoch? There was the Pleistocene, the Anthropocene, and now we’re in whatever the one is called that follows Streep’s Oscars ascendancy. Let’s hope it’s just a blip.