Let's talk about...retirement.

I'm resurrecting an old tag that I haven't posted in for two and a half years! I had ostensibly started the "Let's Talk About..." section to chat about work Meryl has done, but considering the stage her career is nearing, I'm curious to hear people's opinions.

Streep is just a few months shy of her 70th birthday. A lot of years left, one might assume. If we look at some of her contemporaries, many are working well into their 70s and 80s. There has been no greater time to be an actress over 50 in Hollywood than it is now (not that it's great).  And I have to expect that most actors don't think of retirement the same way most of us plebeians do, in that we work and save so that one day we might be able to survive without having the commitment of a job. No, they're doing exactly what they want to be doing. So what's there to retire from?

I suspect that this is how Meryl sees it as well. If the roles are there, she'll keep it up. Yes, she takes breaks, then goes four or five years working on multiple projects successively. But she's also a grandma now, and one wonders if it ever occurs to her that it would be nicer to just hang it up for longer than six to twelve months on occasion.  Granted, not filming anything for, say four years, isn't retirement, but it would be a distinct shift in the pattern we've seen since Meryl got her start in the late 70s.

My speculations are probably out of fear that she would consider putting less out there, as I've become so accustomed to essentially having a new project to look forward to on a yearly basis. What gives me comfort is that if the scripts are out there, Meryl's likely going to be at the top of the list for whom directors want to work with, assuming Meryl fits the demographic of the role. She typically doesn't produce her own stuff, but perhaps if The Nix gets underway it would be a foray into creating roles for herself that she finds interesting and would otherwise not get made.

This year will be a fun one, with Big Little Lies, The Laundromat and Little Women all still to come. But what we can expect from Meryl's future résumé as she enters her eighth decade of life is probably anyone's guess. Here's hoping it's even more fruitful an exciting than the previous seven!