Recasting 1999: "American Beauty"

I'm sure some people will think Annette Bening's role as a dissatisfied suburban housewife in Sam Mendes's American Beauty a bit of a stretch, but I happen to think it's a good fit for Meryl. I can remember several years ago listening to one of Sasha Stone's podcasts about previous Oscar winners. She suggested that Meryl may have done a better job than Bening in the role. I was surprised at the time, as I hadn't heard her say a lot of positive things about Meryl leading up to that point, and it sort of stuck with me whenever I think about this movie. 

Really the only stretch I could argue would, again, be age. Like both of my last two recasting choices, the actress who originated the role is as least ten years younger than Meryl (Helen Hunt, Emma Thompson, and now Bening). To hell with that notion, I say. Meryl would've had no problem playing early to mid 40s the year before she turned fifty. Let's not forget that in the same year, she starred opposite love interest Aidan Quinn in Music of the Heart. Quinn was born the same year as Kevin Spacey, her would-be husband in American Beauty. 

Joe and I rewatched this movie several weeks ago. We both recalled liking it in our first go-around, but I hadn't seen it in close to twenty years. In retrospect, this was one of the first films that felt like it was part of the new century. That sounds a bit dramatic, but most of us didn't see it until after January 1, 2000. The look and feel of it reminds me the types of movies that more regularly came out when I was in college. 

The film follows an unhappy married couple in the 'burbs. Lester Burnham (Spacey) quits his job at a magazine after learning he's going to be laid off. His wife, Carolyn (Bening), is a driven real estate broker whose bored of Lester. Their sixteen year-old daughter Jane (Thora Birch) can't stand either of them. Jane gets involved with kind of a weird neighbor boy, Ricky (Wes Bentley), who's constantly filming everything on his camcorder. Ricky's dad is a retired military guy (Chris Cooper), who's a big homophobe. Carolyn has an affair, Lester pathetically tries to impress Jane's cheerleader friend (Mena Suvari). I don't want to give everything away, but all the adults pretty much end up miserable or dead. 

This is the type of "thinky" movie I feel Meryl would've been interested in. I've read that Mendes had Bening and Spacey in mind from the start, however. As satire, it sort of captured the zeitgeist of American suburban dullness. Good jobs, kids, safe neighborhood, health. And yet you're so fucking unsatisfied that you end up hurting everyone around you, and/or yourself. They're typical, flawed people of course. More repressed from pursuing the things they like than anything, and they don't know how to talk about it. 

It's easy to forget how funny certain parts of the movie are. "I lived in a duplex!" What a hero. 

I loved how the film showed the self-loathing of Chris Cooper's character. Just his incorrect suspicions that his son, Ricky, might be gay sends him over the edge. The typical projection that happens when a guy literally can't live with the possibility of accepting the fact that he himself is into dudes. So sad. 

At the time, American Beauty was an overwhelming critical and financial success. My understanding is that the praise hasn't necessarily aged super well. Mendes himself has reportedly said that he expected some of that, as he considered the film "overpraised" upon its original release. I don't think it's the greatest movie ever made, but I also wasn't really aware of what a boner so many critics had for this film when it came out. When something is that universally adored, it's sort of vogue to be contrarian with the benefit of hindsight. The sexual allegations and eventual criminal charges against Kevin Spacey starting in 2017 probably haven't helped. 

Bening won the BAFTA and SAG, and was the only nominee from the film in the "Big Five" categories that did not win the Academy Award. She was up against a powerful performance from Hillary Swank in Boys Don't Cry. But imagine if Meryl had been in Bening's role. I still think it would've been really difficult to score more first place votes than Swank, but with how well-received the movie was, and how Streep would've been seventeen years out since her last win, maybe it would've been enough to put her over the top. Had she or Bening secured that win, American Beauty would have become only the fourth film in history to win the top five, after It Happened One Night, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Silence of the Lambs. 

Recasting 1998: "Primary Colors"

I had a little trouble at first deciding which film to choose from this year. Often I've had in my mind what roles I wish I'd seen Meryl do for some time, and they do tend to fall in line with ones that have been critically acclaimed or done well with industry awards. When I realized I'd overlooked one of my all-time favorite films, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought to myself, "Duh."

Mike Nichols's comedy-drama Primary Colors was adapted from the novel of the same name. It was originally published anonymously, until journalist Joe Klein took credit a few years later. The story follows the tumultuous presidential campaign of a Southern governor in the early 90s. Basically it's Bill and Hillary Clinton. 

I was definitely not a teenager who followed politics, other than what was probably sensationalized on TV. But I seem to remember seeing the cast of this film on an episode of Oprah around the time it was released. I don't know for sure if it was before or after I saw the film in the theater, but I do remember being rather interested in it and its characters. Perhaps it was that it de-glamorized politicians and leaders down to folks who didn't seem all that different from me and my family in rural Minnesota. 

Meryl didn't really do a lot of political stuff back then, at least in terms of roles. It wasn't until after George Bush had been in office for a while did we start to see her in things that seemed to have more of a message or commentary on U.S. politics. The Manchurian Candidate, Rendition, Lions for Lambs. She was going to do a Martha Mitchell biopic around 2007 with Ryan Murphy that never came to fruition, and she dropped out of 2006's All the King's Men, which starred Sean Penn. Tackling the role of Susan Stanton in Primary Colors would therefore have been a fun early step into the types of projects to which she more regularly attached herself. 

The movie is mostly from the point of view of a young African American political adviser (played by Adrian Lester) who joins Jack Stanton's campaign to become the Democratic nominee for the presidency. John Travolta plays Stanton, in a borderline parody of Bill Clinton as the governor. The great Emma Thompson of course originated the role of Susan. 

Writing about theses characters after 2016 has a bit of a somber feel to it. Susan, much like I expect Hillary Clinton was during her husband's political career, is often forced to convince herself that the political end always justifies the means. Even if it ends up damaging her marriage. Not that Susan is OK with Jack's philandering, but she's got an air pragmatism that Clinton herself seemed to demonstrate whenever faced with her own campaign woes. There was always a sense of "Do whatever you have to do. We'll ask forgiveness for any fallout after we win." Our current president isn't actually that different, other than that he never really seems to be concerned about the fallout either. 

I once saw an interviewer mention to Thompson that when she watched Emma's character on screen, she thought to herself, "The wrong person's running for president!" Oh the foreshadowing in that. The smartest one in the room is relegated to the supportive spouse role. But Susan to some extent is part of her own problem. She's a victim in regard to her husband's infidelity, but she wants the win. She wants and works for the position as much, if not harder than, Jack. Yes, yes, she wants it because she supports his vision and it matches her own of what is right for America, but she could also do that without being married to the guy. 

I know that's so much easier said than done. I cannot even imagine how challenging it would be to have your entire life under a microscope, with people just waiting for you to screw up so they can initiate the dogpile. I wish I could've found a video online of the scene where Susan finds out that Henry (Lester) went behind her back with another member of the campaign to conduct a secret amniocentesis on the Stantons' young babysitter, whom Jack is rumored to have impregnated. It's a devastating scene and brilliantly acted by Thompson. Some good stuff for Meryl to sink her teeth into here. 

Kathy Bates, however, really is the best thing about this film. Her character of Libby Holden is one of my all-time favorites on screen. The somewhat off-kilter "dust buster" of the campaign is a moral counterpart to the Stantons' "prevail at all costs" approach. 

The film was generally well-received by critics (81% on Rotten Tomatoes), but it had a disappointing box office run. Being it was released in March 1998, just a couple months into the Monica Lewinsky scandal, one has to wonder if that hurt its performance with audiences. The resemblance of Jack Stanton to Bill Clinton may have turned folks off to the idea of watching a movie about him at the time that made him out to be the good guy. On the other hand, during a scandal sometimes people can't get enough of it and it's possible it actually helped drive viewers to the theater. And maybe it's just that it wasn't that great of a movie. 

Regardless, I happen to love the film and have continued to revisit it over the years. Even if it's just for Kathy Bates's great delivery of Libby's wisecracks, it's definitely worth the watch. 

Recasting 1997: "As Good as it Gets"

Coming off a string of films in this recasting project that are decidedly not comedic, it's nice to have something a tad lighter for this week's pick. James L. Brooks's romantic comedy is a fun choice for me. I'd considered including Terms of Endearment early on, but it just didn't seem the right fit. It was therefore a nice compromise when I remembered Brooks also directed one of my all-time favorite films of the 90s, As Good as it Gets. 

The film stars Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt as a sort of oddball pairing of love interests. He's got obsessive-compulsive disorder and can only be served by Hunt's character, Carol, who plays a waitress in Manhattan. Turns out Carol has a chronically sick son. When she doesn't show up at work one day because she has to take her son the ER, Nicholson's character (Melvin), who happens to be a successful romance novelist, pays for a private doctor to ensure Carol doesn't have to miss any future shifts. 

First off, let's talk about the age difference. I know it's "only a number" but Nicholson is nearly 30 years older than Hunt. Not that I care that the characters get together with such a spread between them, nor have I historically found it distracting in this film (for better or worse). The point is that Nicholson is perfectly cast in this movie, so I see little issue with casting someone older in Carol's role. Meryl, incidentally, is only fourteen years older than Hunt. "But Carol has a young child in this movie!" someone might argue. Yes, while I think it's a bit of a stretch for someone Streep's age at the time to have a seven year-old (Streep was in her late 40s at the time of filming), let's not forget about the project Meryl actually starred in back in 1997. 

...First Do No Harm was a television movie from 1997 where Meryl portrayed a mother fighting to find a treatment for her son's uncontrolled epilepsy. Interesting parallel between these two pictures. Another coincidence is that the young actor who plays her son in ...First Do No Harm is actually a month younger that the actor who played the son in As Good as it Gets. We had little trouble believing it in ...First Do No Harm, so I doubt we'd think much about it in the latter film. I know I'm probably getting into the weeds about this age thing, but I like to be able to realistically picture Meryl in the roles for which I'm recasting her--with as few changes to the original movie possible. 

One little snag might be Carol's mother, played hilariously by Shirley Knight. She's only thirteen years old than Meryl. But we've seen even narrower age gaps between onscreen parents and children in other high-profile films that pulled it off just fine (Melissa Leo and Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter comes to mind). Fun fact though: I've read that Betty White was originally offered the role of Carol's mom, but declined it due to how the dog was treated in the script. That would've been an amazingly fun paring to see with Meryl, and a much more realistic age difference (27 years). 

"Con-science?!" I enjoy that line. As much as I adore this film, I do tend to think Hunt is a bit extra at times, like she's going for laughs too obviously. I've never seen a single episode of Mad About You, so I don't know if this performance has ever been compared to her role in that sitcom, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's in areas like this that I feel Meryl would've been able to provide some more interesting nuance to the lines. 

I'd be remiss not to mention the great Greg Kinnear from this film. He of course plays Simon, who lives across the hall from Melvin and is out on his luck after getting badly injured in a robbery attack. Melvin begrudgingly agrees to drive Simon to his parents' to ask them for money. But not before he guilts Carol into joining them. It's on this misfit road trip that we get some of the best moments in the film. 

As awful as it is, my husband and I both laughed out loud when I played this clip and we hear the line, "Carol the waitress, Simon the fag." But it's absolutely fitting for Melvin, whom we get to see learn to be a "better man." There are times where one thinks, "why the hell is she even remotely interested in this guy." It really doesn't seem to be because of the money he had which helps out her son. His act in doing so, while completely selfish as far as its motivation for him, showed Carol a different side that we can actually see her growing affections as somewhat believable. That's a tricky thing to negotiate in this character I think. Melvin's such a nightmare at times and Carol doesn't seem to mess around. Or maybe it's just that she's barely had time for in the past several years, and she's not really sure who she is without having her son's medical emergencies run her life. 

The movie a huge box-office success. It raked in $314 million against a budget of only $50 million. Critics hailed it as one of the best of the year as well. It currently holds an 85% "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes.  and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Hunt and Nicholson both won Lead Acting Oscars, as well as at the Golden Globes. 

Recasting 1996: "Dead Man Walking"

Dead Man Walking rounds out the third and final film for my recasting that was originally released in 1995. Being that it was filmed only six months prior to its release, it's the best fit to be pushed to '96. I dithered a bit on the possibilities for this year. Fargo is a great role for Frances McDormand, and it even takes place in my home state. But I never even saw it until a couple years ago, and for a long time I was sort of put off by how strange everyone's accents in the film seemed to me. Brenda Blethyn for Secrets and Lies, an incredibly well-received film and performance, also came to mind. 

Ultimately, however, Susan Sarandon's Oscar-winning role of Sister Helen Prejean won out, and I'm happy with the choice (as I still really wanted to somehow be able to include Copycat and Dolores Claiborne from the same year).

There are a few main items that make this role appealing to me. Having already seen Meryl as Sister Aloysius in Doubt, we'd get to see a pretty sharp contrast in what I consider to be good and bad nuns. Not that Sister Aloysius is evil, but she sort or represents the stupid and bad stuff about Catholicism (with the exception of her drive to rid the school of what she thinks is a pedophile). She's a bastion of archaic values and adheres to rigid doctrine. Meanwhile, Helen Prejean, to me, represents what sadly seems to be the forgotten aspect of Christianity: acting like Jesus. I don't personally believe the dude was a god, but by what we know of what he preached in the Bible, there's some pretty good stuff in there. 

Prejean helps convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet (brilliantly portrayed by Sean Penn) with his last chance of appeal. Without judgement, she serves as his spiritual advisor and ultimately helps him admit and take responsibility for the death of a young man and the rape of a young woman. The families of the victims are abhorred by her connection with Poncelet. It's here where I think Meryl would be particularly attracted to such a role. It's a tricky scenario and difficult thing to defend--communicating with a killer much less helping him commute his sentence. 

I don't think I'd have much trouble saying "Ciao" to anyone who murdered a loved one of mine and was sentenced to death. There probably really are people who are just plain evil in the world. But I also can understand someone like Matthew Poncelet, or anyone else who had an abusive, wretched childhood, and goes down a dangerous spiral into crime. And while there's no excuse for killing an innocent person, I admire folks who somehow find the strength and maturity to forgive someone who owns up to brutal wrongs they've done. 

Sarandon is wonderful in this role and I really enjoy the chemistry between her and Penn. I watched the movie for just the second time a few weeks back and I was surprised how touched I was by the emotion from both actors, as well as those who portray the victims' families and Poncelet's. The two leads' penultimate scene before the execution is particularly tense. 

There's probably something wrong with me, but does anyone else feel a little bit of erotic tension between them? The facial expressions and the manner of speech from Sarandon borderline on romantic longing in some phrases. I don't expect that was intended, and the scene is still magnificent in spite of my own dumb distraction. 

I think it would've been pretty tough for Meryl to land this role. After all, it was Sarandon's partner Tim Robbins who directed it and cast her in the lead role. The film and both her and Penn's performances were highly praised by critics. It sits at a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 80 on Metacritic. 

Despite Sarandon's probably overdue status for an Oscar by the time 1995 rolled around, I'm convinced that the only reason Meryl didn't win for The Bridges of Madison County was the simple fact that she'd won twice already. I don't begrudge Sarandon her award--it was a lovely performance. But it was a year, along with Jodie Foster's win in 1988 and Sandra Bullock's in 2010, where a brilliant and possibly more deserving Streep performance came up short with the Academy. 

Recasting 1995: "Copycat"

I've had a morbid fascination with serial killers since I was in my early teens. Maybe it was my affinity for The Silence of the Lambs. Or perhaps the fact that I can remember Jeffrey Dahmer being in the news so much the summer before I entered sixth grade. Horror films of the 80s ran rampant with boogeymen-like slashers like Jason Voorhies, Michael Myers, and my all-time favorite, Freddy Krueger. But those depictions were such stylized, almost campy portrayals that, while probably based on real killers, felt a bit clowny as I got older. 

With the advent of more realistic, and ultimately scary murderers on screen in the 90s like Hannibal Lecter, there was more focus on the minds and motivations of these elusive creatures--a character who makes us think a bit more about how a human being can turn out like that. We could imagine the real possibility that we might actually know one of these guys (or girls) without ever knowing it.

The 1995 films Seven and Copycat captured this appeal for me. Both are films I actually saw in the theater, with Copycat being the first from this recasting project. Sigourney Weaver has commented that she is most proud of her work in this film, portraying the agoraphobic criminal psychologist, Dr. Helen Hudson. I think it would be a delicious role for Meryl. 

After Helen is nearly killed by escaped prisoner Daryll Lee Cullum (creepily played by Harry Connick Jr.), she secludes herself in a fancy apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area. Holly Hunter and Dermot Mulroney are detectives who seek Helen's help in catching a serial killer, whose modus operandi is copying famous serial killers like the Boston Strangler, the Hillside Strangler, and Son of Sam.  Helen is very reluctant at first, spending her days with the shades drawn, a drink in her hand, and her computers logged in to chat rooms (which by the way seemed SUPER advanced at the time this film was released). But she eventually relents, and ends up realizing she's the main muse of the killer they're all trying to capture.

I probably watched this movie about fifty times before going to college. I loved how it gave us a bit a history on a few of the more notorious serial killers of the 20th century. And nothing's scarier than being able to imagine so vividly a dangerous thing realistically happening. The scenes where the killer is actually in Helen's apartment, both with and without her knowing, were particularly intense for me. It seemed so easy to think "just get the hell out!" But Helen can't. She's paralyzed by her fear of the outside, to the point of almost losing consciousness if she tries to take even a few steps beyond the threshold of the front door. I can't even imagine the terror of being a prisoner in your own home, on top of the overwhelming anxiety already present that serves as the watchful guard preventing you from escaping.  

I would've loved to see Meryl and Holly Hunter going head to head in this. Their interaction starts out a bit cold, and I absolutely love how prickly Weaver portrays Hudson at times. The snotty head movements she gives when having to field a question she finds either too naive or too bold. But they form a great team eventually. 

It's easy to see how Meryl would not have been the first choice for this film. She hasn't historically done thriller or action or gun movies. But there's a lot to do with the character of Dr. Helen Hudson. I'm having trouble thinking of role where Streep would have to portray fear this often. And it's a complicated fear. of course, especially when portraying a brilliant woman who was probably excruciatingly rational and in control prior to her violent encounter with Cullum. There's a paradox in that which I bet Meryl would've enjoyed negotiating. 

Weaver bemoaned the fact that Copycat sort of got "lost in the shuffle of thrillers" at the time. No doubt she's referring to David Fincher's Seven, one of my all time favs and a superior film to Copycat in my opinion. But she's probably right. Copycat is under-remembered and underappreciated. It had a decent show at the box office, again something that likely would've been stronger had it not been up against films in a similar genre at the exact same time. And it was generally well-received by critics, many of them praising the dynamite performances of its two tough, female leads. 

 

Recasting 1994: "Dolores Claiborne"

I'm providing a bit of a spoiler right from the start of this post. The next three years of recasting will consist of films that all had their theatrical releases in 1995. Conveniently for my brain--which wants really badly to be able to picture a realistic shooting schedule for the projects into which I'm retroactively inserting Meryl--all three are spaced out rather nicely in regard to their original filming. 

The first of those happens to not only be a great role, but one of my favorite movies. It's widely known that Stephen King had Kathy Bates in mind when writing his novel, Dolores Claiborne. She'd won an Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes in the film adaptation of Misery five years prior. It seems only fitting that she'd take on the title role in another of King's psychological thrillers. 

For me, the title role in this film is less of a stretch than the previous one for which I subbed out Kathy Bates in favor of Meryl (Fried Green Tomatoes). At the heart of the drama are the relationships between Dolores and her estranged daughter, Selena, and Vera Donovan, the woman whom for decades Dolores has served as a domestic. Dolores is arrested for Vera's murder, but really she was just found in a compromising position after Vera fell out of her wheelchair and was near death at the bottom of the stairs. 

Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) comes in from her hotshot job as a journalist in Manhattan to help her mother out, and it's quickly apparent that the two do not get along. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Selena's contempt for her mother dates back to when Dolores was under suspicion for the death of Selena's father. Christopher Plummer plays the disgruntled detective who's convinced Dolores got away with murder twenty years prior. 

For being a "thriller," this has always just felt like a great character drama to me with a lot of focus on a troubled family. The strained relationship between mother and daughter is heartbreaking because Selena has repressed the memory of (another spoiler alert!) her father sexually abusing her. She's gone through life just assuming her mother was likely responsible for her father going missing, and worse, that he didn't deserve it. Whether he had it coming is up for debate, but without the context of knowing he abused his daughter, it's a lot easier not to feel back when Dolores tricks him into falling into an abandoned well. 

While the complexities of the Dolores-Selena relationship are meaty, my favorite is actually the salty back and forth between Dolores and Vera. There's something weirdly relaxing in the scenes where Dolores is shown toiling away to keep the house looking perfect. It's sort of that Downton Abby or The Crown effect. Everything is so clean and perfect all the time (which is easy as long as you can have someone else do it for you). 

And despite Vera being such a hard-nosed rich bitch of a boss, we get to see a speck of her humanity after Dolores reveals that her husband, Joe, (portrayed by the great David Strathairn) has foiled her plans to run away with Selena.

Great stuff from Judy Parfitt. I have to admit that Kathy Bates's accent is a little distracting at times. It's almost routine at this point to assume Meryl would've nailed it, but I imagine it's one of those trickier ones as far as they go for the United States--like Boston or a specific borough of New York. 

There's so much to do in this role. With it spanning a couple decades of a life essentially given up in the service of one person (Vera) and for the sole benefit of another (Selena), Dolores really is the heroine of the story in every way. It's another one of those "difficult" scenarios that we know Meryl covets. Yes, it's probably wrong that Dolores premeditated her husband's death, but was the world--or Dolores and her daughter--worse off as a result? Probably not. 

I really feel the timing of this movie's original release is what got int he way of awards recognition for Kathy Bates. It was filmed in Nova Scotia from April through July 1994 and released in March of '95. Historically, films released that early aren't major players at awards ceremonies (I'm aware of The Silence of the Lambs). It seems the type of picture that could've been ready in time for a December release. '94 was a much less crowded year in terms of quality lead performances than '95 was. Had the studio opted for a fourth quarter release in the year it was filmed, I wonder if Bates and others may have been on more people's radars. 

With director Taylor Hackford at the helm (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray), the film was generally well-received by critics and a modest box-office success. Alas, Bates and Leigh only managed Saturn Award nominations. Parfitt, in retrospect, seems a perfect contender for Supporting Actress. A pity and and oversight in each case as far as I'm concerned. 

Recasting 1993: "The Piano"

1993 is probably one of the strongest years for lead actress performances on film in memory. Three of the four roles nominated for an Academy Award were those that Meryl was at least vaguely connected to in some way (The Remains of the Day, Shadowlands, and Six Degrees of Separation). I included those three films in my reimagined history of roles for which I wish Meryl had ultimately ended up doing. 

But what of the role that actually won that year? Holly Hunter's widely acclaimed performance as a mute Scottish woman sold into marriage in New Zealand pretty much swept the awards circuit that year, in a way I don't think I'd ever seen nor have since. Helen Mirren came close for 2006's The Queen, but Hunter really swept. Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, (there were not SAGs yet), Cannes, critics bodies for L.A., New York, Chicago, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, and London. Considering that she was up against great performances by Emma Thompson, Stockard Channing, Debra Winger, and Angela Bassett, it's easy to say it was a stunning portrayal. 

I bet Sigourney Weaver was probably kicking herself at the time. She was director Jane Campion's first choice for the role, but declined it, apparently saying she was "taking a break from acting." Weaver's consideration is something that actually helped me picture Meryl in this role, as the two are only a few months apart in age. It therefore doesn't seem like that would've been a reason Meryl couldn't have slid into the part. Plus, her co-stars would've been Harvey Keitel (ten years older) and Sam Neill, whom she's already starred alongside in 1988's A Cry in the Dark.

The film depicts Ada and her young daughter, Flora (portrayed by Anna Paquin in her Academy Award-winning performance), as they're dropped off on a beach in New Zealand in the mid 19th century. Ada is essentially sold into marriage by her father to Sam Neill's character, Alisdair. Ada is mute "by choice," and can hear just fine, but hasn't spoken since she was a child. Flora serves as her interpreter. Alisdair sells Ada's piano to a forrester, Baines (Keitel), and Ada is furious. Baines is willing to give it back to her by "exchanging" a certain number of piano keys for what amount to sexual favors. Ada eventually falls for Baines and the two have an affair. Alisdair eventually learns of it and (spoiler) chops off one of Ada's fingers. It all turns out OK for Ada and Flora in the end, as they leave Alisdair and end up with Baines in a different part of New Zealand. 

Wow. It's an intense and beautifully filmed movie. This is a good example of one of those "risky" roles we don't necessarily see Meryl do. The nudity might have turned her off to the project, but the opportunities for emoting when you aren't able to speak! Meryl has a limitless treasury of facial expressions from which to draw. This seems right up her alley (although Hunter does have a short voice over with a Scottish accent). 

The film was almost universally praised upon its release. It won the Palm d'Or for Campion at the Cannes Film Festival. She was also nominated at the Academy Awards for director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning for the latter. It's so rare we get female directors, much less those who direct Best Picture nominees. I truly wonder if the only way Meryl can put herself in a position to win another lead Oscar would be if she were to connect with an auteur director on a picture with really tricky or sensitive subject matter. It's maybe the last territory we've yet to see Meryl traverse. Something we'd normally expect Isabelle Huppert to be in, for example. I don't blame her for her choices though. She knows her strengths, and maybe, just maybe, she believes she has limits to what she can effectively convey on screen. 

I say "try me."

Recasting 1992: "Blue Sky"

Up to this point in my recasting project, I don't think I've bumped any film greater than one year forward or back from its original release date. But this week's example is sort of a special case. It's widely known that Jessica Lange won her only Lead Actress Academy Award for her performance as a bipolar housewife for Blue Sky in 1995. But the movie was actually filmed in mid 1990, shelved after the bankruptcy of Orion pictures forced them to delay its release until 1994. Incidentally, this happened to be three years after the director, Tony Richardson, passed away due to complications from AIDS. 

What a history! And I haven't even described how Meryl fits in. Let's start with the role itself. It's sort of what I've come to understand as a quintessential Jessica Lange role: Sex appeal with a hint of crazy. See Frances, Crimes of the Heart, Feud, The Politican. Lange has said herself she's fascinated by characters on the brink of madness, and it certainly shows in her filmography. Meryl, on the other hand, surprisingly doesn't seem to portray too many characters with mental illness. Plenty, Postcards from the Edge (maybe?). Some might make a case for Ironweed and August: Osage County, but it's probably a stretch. 

The lead in Blue Sky is of Carly Marshall. She's married to Hank (Tommy Lee Jones), who's a nuclear engineer in the military in 1962. Carly feels stifled by the banality of life on an army base when the family has to move from Hawaii to Alabama. She's a bit of a vamp, which tends to embarrass Hank, who finds himself making excuses for her when she behaves in a way that isn't necessarily perceived as befitting an army wife. 

Already this seems like a role we'd be surprised to see Meryl do. She made it a point early on in her career to not accept roles that could pigeonhole her into a certain kind of actress. It wouldn't have been too difficulty for her to fall into the sort of suffering girlfriend, like we saw in The Deer Hunter. Unlike Lange, Meryl has never really been cast for her looks. Not that she couldn't be, she's beautiful. But she's always been more inclined to be a character actress. Had this role in Blue Sky come along in 1989 (remember, it was filmed in '90), I think it could've been a very interesting opportunity for Meryl. Imagine her turning forty and coming across this script. What a great way to sort of show off how you've still "got it" than to portray someone as beguiling as Carly? For Lange it seems like second nature. For Meryl, I think it would be a stretch, which is why it would be so amazing to watch!

What a contrast in personality between this character and Evelyn Couch from Fried Green Tomatoes. Had this filmed like it originally did in 1990, it would've been planned for a release the same year as Fried Green Tomatoes. But let's just pretend that Blue Sky someone how found it's way to the light of day two years after its release instead of four. Either way, it would've been on either side of Fried Green Tomatoes, and the contrast in roles in back to back years would only serve to make the fact that they were portrayed by the same person that much more exciting. 

The film overall did fairly well with critics. But Lange was the real story here, winning both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, among a half a dozen other nominations from critics groups and the Screen Actors Guild.  

Recasting 1991: "Fried Green Tomatoes"

For me, part of the fun of this recasting project has been inserting Meryl into some of my favorite movies. This particular span of film history (late 80s, early 90s) has some of the most memorable casts of women on screen: Beaches, Steel Magnolias, Thelma & Louise. Not all necessarily feel right for inserting Meryl into the cast, however, For instance, I previously considered M'Lynn for Steel Magnolias, either character for Beaches, and of course I already have Meryl and Goldie Hawn as the star duo of Thelma & Louise in my reimagined filmography from 2014. 

M'Lynn's a good character, but there's just something about Sally Field and the ensemble's performance that's so great and special that I actually don't really like picturing Meryl in it. Same for Beaches, in a sense. That isn't to say that any roles I happen to choose for Meryl's recasting means they weren't necessarily brilliant performances in their own right. It's more a feeling I get of "I'd love to see Meryl do that." It's a bit nebulous, I admit, but I suspect it would be different for everyone. 

So whom do I want to see Meryl portray in 1991's Fried Green Tomatoes? Really there's only one that's reasonable to select, and I expect several people will have a hard time picturing Meryl as this character. But Kathy Bates's as of Evelyn Couch, combined with the greatness of the film itself, are too irresistible of a combination for me to pass up. 

Evelyn is a 40-something housewife in Alabama who befriends a senior woman, Ninny Threadgood in a nursing home (played by Jessica Tandy). Sidebar--this pairing includes the previous two winners for the Academy Award for Best Actress (Tandy in 89's Driving Miss Daisy and Bates for 90's Misery). Ninny recounts tales of her family and friends who lived in the now abandoned town of Whistle Stop. Basically, it's a movie split between present and past, with the present sections showing Evelyn's sort of mid-life crisis dissatisfaction with her life and husband, and the flashbacks depicting Ninny's stories that take place between the two World Wars. 

The role calls for someone overweight, sort of frumpy, no confidence, feels isolated. But the fun of it is there's such a transformation as the film progresses. Through her friendship with Ninny, Evelyn gains some confidence, becomes more fit, gets a good job, and saves her marriage. This clip is sort of the turning point in her character:

If the film kept its early 1991 filming schedule, Meryl might actually have benefited from the fact that she was a few months pregnant at the time. Perhaps they could've filmed her later scenes first (when Evelyn looks more trim and put together) and her earlier scenes later. What better excuse to put on a little weight than when you're eating for two! And it's not as if Meryl's never worn a fat suite (see Florence Foster Jenkins). 

As far as the movie itself goes, my favorite I think are actually the flashbacks, particularly the scenes between Idgy and Ruth (magnificently portrayed by Mary Stuart Masterson and Mary Louise Parker). For one, I love the southern setting and their relationship is very touching. 

My heart absolutely sinks when she says "Come on, you old bee charmer." And I love Cicely Tyson in this. It's disappointing that the film glosses over the lesbian relationship between Idgy and Ruth compared to the book's depiction. The director, Jon Avnet, has acknowledged this, and stated that the food fight scene in the film was was meant to depict "symbolic love-making." I guess they thought it would be too risque for theatergoers in 1991. I think Meryl would've preferred they kept it more like the novel. 

The film was an enormous box office success and did well with critics. Bates was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress-Comedy or Musical, while Tandy was nominated in supporting as well as at the Oscars and for BAFTA. In addition, film also received an Oscar nomination for the its two screenwriters, Fannie Flagg (the author of the novel on which the film is based) and Carol Sobieski. 

To this day, the film remains one of my all-time favorites. 

Recasting 1990: "The Grifters"

On to a new decade! Coming off what would've been 1989's Dangerous Liaisons, let's imagine that director Stephen Frears had been so impressed with Streep's work as the devious Marquise de Merteuil, that he wanted to cast her again in his upcoming neo-noir pic, The Grifters. It's not difficult to believe in that possibility. Directors often have favorites. Frears himself cast Judi Dench in three lead roles in the last fifteen years. All Meryl need do is say "yes" to another great role.

Martin Scorsese was originally planning on directing this film, but ultimately suggested Frears, as he was looking for something to follow up Liaisons. I can totally see this movie in the hands of Scorsese. This type of mob-related crime drama is very much in his wheelhouse. We'll just have to be patient if we want to see Meryl inserted into a reimagined Scorsese role, however, much less cast in a real-life one. 

The role of Lilly Dillon was originated by the great Anjelica Huston. A long-time con artist, Lilly visits her son Roy (John Cusack) after several years apart, only to find him badly injured from a scam gone wrong. She tries to get him to give up "the grift," saying he's not cut out for it. Roy eventually gets into a fight with his girlfriend (Annette Bening) when he declines to join her in a long con. Myra (Bening) gets pissed after Roy hits her and decides to take her revenge by ratting out Lilly for stealing from her boss--a man who beats the shit out of her for being late to the dog track after she takes her son to the hospital. 

 

A role like Lilly sort of reminds me of how rarely Meryl does stuff as risky as this. When I watched the movie for the first time this summer, I didn't think it was all that out there. But watching clips again, I can think of very few scenes of her where it's actually disturbing to watch what the character's going through. She does enjoy topics that are "difficult," but there aren't many films where it the concepts could've been received as to be in poor taste. Not that she was never involved in a poor film, but not in roles that necessarily put at risk her particular brand of star. For heaven's sake, Lilly essentially seduces her own son at the end to try to persuade him to let her go after he catches her stealing his money (as an aside, I happen to think Cusack looks more like Streep than Huston). While not exactly the stuff made of fairy tales, it's the kind of "difficult" we don't really see Meryl do. 

But it's exactly why I'd be so interested to see her get lost in something so treacherous! I know she's said she hates noir, but like American Gigolo a decade prior, if it's actually a good movie with a great script, I wonder if she'd have had a different take on the genre. And she would've been able to say in the Los Angeles area to film this. She's of course been on record as having made a point of accepting only roles for which she could film in L.A. during the early 90s, so as to not have to cart her family all over the world. 

Huston, in a role that was originally intended for Cher, did an amazing job and won several critics awards. She came up short at the Oscars, however, losing out to Kathy Bates for her incredible performance in the screen adaptation of Stephen King's Misery (one of my personal favorites). I also sort of wonder if the Academy felt bad for their sinful omission of Stephen Frears a couple years prior for directing Dangerous Liaisons, as they made up for it with this film. Bening also received a supporting nod, as did the film's adapted screenplay. 

I highly recommend having a look.